H is for Hippopotami

Strangely, the second most visited post ever, on the blog, with over 7000 direct hits, is the lazy-post on Rhinoceri I shot the same day I shot the first of these images, and while I suspect bots have more to do with that record traffic than humans, it is true that the Model Animal collecting fraternity is much healthier and more numerous than the Toy Solder brotherhood, so the odd animal post doesn't hurt!

 

No order or specific narrative, just a bunch of Hippopotamuses, with a few notes, another lazy post! I was, at the time (2020) combining the attic stuff with the storage stuff, which I had dug-out of the garage, looking for something else! And it went something like this;

 

Probably the storage lot, but could be from the attic?

 

Probably the attic lot, but could be from storage!

 

Combined; I then remembered there were some Britians ones in a box of Britains farm and zoo somewhere . . .

 

Which also gave-up another Charbens and a late blue-polymer Timpo, requiring a slight reorganisation, with the China-vinyl types to the left, Britains copies (Blue Box, Redbox and Holly etc.), scaled down, next, with two Charbens, a small cracker type 'ivorene' and three more origianl Hong Kong's in front, down the middle, then the common Hong Kong, in four or five sizes (Arco, New Maries, RAE, etc.), with Britains and Timpo to the right.

 

At some point this little chap arrived, 'China'; I think, he has stuff on his belly, but I didn't note it at the time! Not Safari, K&M/WR, Schleich or Papo, as far as I can tell, but seemingly quite up-market? Yowies maybe . . . also in the queue, several posts!

 

A few were elsewhere, like the two brandings of big-blue eraser, Tiger Stores and Royle Kids, several more China/HK types to the right, the brownish-gray one seems to be a version of the Toy Major sculpt, while the other two are older HK 'ethylene's. The silver one, who's hollow, and a paired Hippo/Elephant to the left, complete that additions-shot!

 

That pair raise an interesting point, as they clearly go together; same plastic type and colour, same paint, but are marked differently, which is something you need to look out for with all sorting/attributing of Hong Kong stuff, the stamps used are two, one 'MADE IN' and the other 'HONG KONG', with the engineer stamping them above/below each other on the Hippo's belly, but in a vague line along the Elephant's spine.

 

These were also in storage, and while the Topps were in the 'minor makes' zone, they have since been added to with a few more, there are 24 in the set; Baby Animals, the other bag is from the unknown zone, and were kept together, as their marks are wholly inverted! The Foal and Camel being Tai Sang (Blue Box/Redbox) knock-offs.

 

The one in the bag, seeming to be the donor for the cruder, flat inside-legged hollowed-out copy in silver, from the unknowns, not that he/she/it's particularly 'known' either, it isn't!

 

Seen before in a plunder or donation post? I think this one's Marx, but probably from an animal transport or circus truck of some kind, and maybe from back in the tin-plate vehicle days, although the animal is actually two polystyrene halves, glued together.

 

These were taken from the old fridge before it went to storage, on the left poured-resin, on the right routed wood and both magnetic decorative items.

 

A dark grey Britians baby and a pair of Hong Kong jobbies, taken in 2022, they may have been in one of the big donations from Jon Attwood, so many thanks to him.

 

That's it for this casual stroll, there are lots of named ones in with their other animals, and all the mini tub/tube/toob and pocket-money stuff is elsewhere, the vinyl minis, and the small-scale, flats and novelties are all missing, while a few more have probably come in over the last 3½ years, but hopefully, there will be a Hippopotamus page one day, with all of them!

T is for Toys-to-Life

A bit of a lazy post today (although it's involved a lot of editing!), and very much a joint enterprise, which has been in the queue since 2017, from whence all the images date, after early submissions from the Blog's roving reporter in New York, Brian Berke, in that February, through summer shelfies (from both of us, I think), to some scans of that years' Argos Christmas Catalogue. A situation not helped by both the passage of time and the fact we were, at the time, both using cameras with a default prefix on image titles of DSCN!

 

Also, everything here has already been replaced by NFC (Near Field [digital] Communication) games, lines and ranges, so it's all, already obsolete. And while the tardiness in publishing has been explained before (a lot has happened here at Small Scale World Towers in the last few years - and is ongoing), the subject is very peripheral to figure collection, and this is a mostly Wikipedia-worded box-ticker, overview or primer, covering the three main ranges, back in 2017.

 

And, no, I don't know where that eight-years went!

 

Fistley, the opening paragraph from this Wikipedia page;

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toys-to-life

 

"Toys-to-life is a video game feature using physical figurines or action figures to interact within the game. There are several technologies used to make physical figurines appear in game such as image recognition, quick response (QR) codes, Bluetooth and near field communication (NFC). Depending on the technology, the game can determine the individual figurine's proximity, and save a player's progress data to a storage medium located within that piece. It was one of the most lucrative branches of the video game industry especially during the late 1990s and 2010s, with the Skylanders franchise alone selling more than $3 billion worth over the course of four years."

 

While this Wikipedia page informs us of the above Skylanders game;

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skylanders

 

"Skylanders is a toys-to-life action-adventure video game franchise developed by American video game developer Toys for Bob and published by Activision. 

Skylanders games are played using NFC-enabled collectible figurines of playable characters, alongside a specially themed NFC reader dubbed the "Portal of Power", which reads and writes data stored on a microchip within the base of the figure. This includes the corresponding character to use during gameplay, as well as ingame [sic] upgrades and statistics, allowing figures to retain their game data across different games in the series.

Each Skylander is associated with one of ten elements: Earth, Air, Fire, Water, Magic, Tech, Life, Undead, Light, and Dark. Skylanders of different elements are stronger in certain areas of the game, and can unlock areas of the game hidden behind "Elemental Gates"." 

 

The next biggest was the Disney Infinity franchise;

 

Again from Wikipedia

 

"Disney Infinity (2013) was a toys-to-life series based on Disney characters and franchises. Since the initial game's release in 2013, there had been three installments [sic]. Disney Infinity was the first game, focusing on Disney and Pixar characters. In 2014, Disney Infinity: Marvel Super Heroes was released as the second game, which focused on Marvel characters and properties. The third game, 2015's Disney Infinity 3.0, centered [sic] on the Star Wars franchise. All Disney Infinity figurines could interact with various games in the series. The line concluded in 2016, when Disney announced that production of the series had officially ceased, and that there would be no more future titles. "Gold Editions" of each game have since been released on Steam, containing a majority of the original content with the toys integrated into the games."

 

The other big seller back then was the planet destroying polymer plagiarists . . .

 

. . . Lego, and their Dimensions.

 

Wikipedia again;

 

"Lego Dimensions (2015) was a toys-to-life game developed by Traveller's Tales that used physical Lego figures, featuring characters from various Warner Brothers and Lego franchises, as well as other third-party intellectual properties such as Back to the Future, The Simpsons, and many more. Some franchises, such as Adventure Time and Sonic the Hedgehog, had never seen releases in Lego format prior. The game involves a heavier emphasis on the physicality of the genre, with characters having vehicles that could be rebuilt into new forms, as well as mechanics that involved moving characters on the Toy Pad. No sequels were released, with new content being added through a series of "Year 2" updates. On October 23, 2017, Warner Bros. officially announced that they would not be developing further content for Lego Dimensions" 

 

and from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lego_Dimensions;

 

"Lego Dimensions is a 2015 toys-to-life platform video game developed by Traveller's Tales and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, for the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Xbox One, Xbox 360 and Wii U. It is a crossover between Lego and over thirty different franchises, from which levels can be played through a USB toy pad peripheral. The Starter Pack, containing the game, the USB toy pad, three minifigures and one vehicle, was released in September 2015, while additional level packs and characters were released over the following two years."

 

Obviously, Brian bought a Donald Duck for purely ornamental purposes, and why wouldn't you?! I know I hate Mickey and Mini, but I don't have trouble with the rest of them, although the whole Pluto/Goofy thing is a bit odd, and Donald having turkey for Christmas is downright disturbing!

 

These are starting to turn-up in mixed lots, at Car Boot Sales, or in small Charity Shop bags, but I actually try to avoid them as the rigid bases (where all the electronics are) mean even loose, they take up a lot of space, and there may be a future session of debasing those I have picked up, as the figures are often very good examples of the art. Also, the electronic exchange shops (like CeX, geddit: these kids are soooo edgy!) still tend to have cabinets full of them, as many people still play with them, even if they're now discontinued.

 

Many thanks as always to Brian for his help with these, at some point we will return to them, I'm sure, but not a great priority, they are electronic gaming pieces, not strictly toy figures!

G is for Gashapon - Tarlin - Samurai Suits of Armour

While I love the Onepi No Mi figures, and am really pleased with the Samurai and the not-shot Ultraman monsters, I think these are my favourites of this sample; suits of Samurai armour, as displayed in museums, or, knowing the order of a Japanese household, probably how they were displayed between wearings, back in the - ancient/medieval - day.

 

Colour-coded capsules don't actually help when the randomness occurs behind the trap-door, and in the depths of the cabinet, which you can't even see through the glass, for the pile of balls, wickedly showing you the one you want, high up on the right!

 

Components of one laid out, the construction of these Tarlin miniatures, though simpler, is similar to those 4D Puzzle tanks, dinosaurs, spaceships, and the kangaroo we've seen here, I think!

 

Three of four, however, as my Japanese is as poor now, as it was three days ago, and there are no English titles on these sheets, as there were on the Bandai Samurai set, I can't give you any names, but assume the owners of the armour are all relatively famous, or at least well known in Japan.

 

The missing set, from the below sheets.

Paperwork!

 

Next day - Courtesy of EY, from the 1:72nd Multiverse;

 

Armor #1 belongs to Sanada Nobushige aka Sanada Yukimura.
Armor #2 belongs to Uesugi Kenshin
Armor #3 belongs to Mori Motonari
Armor #4 belongs to Ishida Mitsunari 

 

Bringing this mini-season to an end, many thanks to Adrian for finding them and stuffing his luggage with them! We've seen the odd figure in Show-plunder posts over the years, and looked at an earlier Tomy set many moons ago, here, from when Gashapon machine's contents were less sophisticated than they have become in the last 20-years, while there was a Tarco-Tomy mash-up with some UK issued capsules in a previous round-up of such things, and these days, Tomy machines can be found in the UK, The Entertainer often has a bank near the doors, but they tend to sell the smaller (older?) stuff.

G is for Gashapon - Bandai Namco - Ultraman Cityscape

It is the bane of blind or random selection that you won't always get what you want, what you hoped for, or what you need to complete a run or set, and while this set has three nice figures, both Adrain and I ended-up with the same simplified, micro-building, hay-ho!

 

The machine!

 

The capsule, and prize, I couldn't work it out until I'd got it out of the packet and studied the sheet! It's a small (1:600th or even 1:1200th) type micro-bulding, to be made-up, with five others, into a cityscape, for the 'Giant' Ultramen to stand amongst as they battle Godzilla or Mothma, or something equally daft and rubber-suit sized!

 

Paperwork, I don't know if the three figures are different heros. different generatuons/movie-versions of the same guy or what? Having never really followed the franchise (I haven't seen any of the recent big-budget Hollywood takes either, and I'm not in a queue to!), it always struck me as a kid's daftness, and while you can have nostalgia for your own (I wish someone would find a stash of Hector's House recordings), I don't think you can retro-establish a love for something aimed at kids, as a cold, cynical, logical adult?

 

Powered by a sealed watch battery, the novelty has a limited life-span, in its illuminated form at least, but you can, hopefully, from the right-hand image, get an idea of how a bunch of them would look with one or two of the figures looming out from the midst of them!

G is for Gashapon - Bandai Namco - Ultraman Monsters

I forgot to shoot the figures with this post, and they are long buried in the storage unit, so this one's just a quickie now, to get us to the end of the sequence, and my favourite set! Not that these were in any way shabby, and I actually ended-up with two sculpts, the 1st and 3rd in the line-up below.

 

 

 The machine responsible for this truncated post!

 

 

 Pink balls . . . Ooo-eerr missus!

 

Paperwork, and that's a wrap! Well, more of a fold . . . bah-duum TISSH!

G is for Gashapon - Bandai Namco - Samurai Warriors

Some 'proper' toy soldiers types, here with medieval warriors, followers of the Bushido code, and one time powerhouse in Japan . . . God! I over-egged that pudding, didn't I? I like them, a nice 54mm, albeit with thick, plinth bases.

 

Paperwork! Note they are manufactured in the Philippines, China is slowly losing that crown, I've seen several toys made in Taiwan, Vietnam or Korea (South, of course) recently, as people try to divest themselves of exploitable links to the next Superpower, while still  looking to follow labour-costs below their own!

 

The simplest figure had a two-compartment bag, with the whole figure and a base (ABS), along with the long, thin paper.

 

While this chap gets five compartments!

 

As with the golds in the Shogun Palace line, these had polychrome or all-black versions, and I got one of the latter, but left it in the packaging for now, having the full colour one to show and look at.

 

The three of them, the guy in the middle will benefit from the old hot-water treatment at some point to get the separate rear of his pole-arm/weapon (a Kara/Jumonji Yari) to line up with the front, and a touch of WD40, or a pin drill may help the front locate in the hand a little better.

 

Left; Kanbee Kuroda      Middle; Yukimura Sanada      Right; Hideyoshi Toyotomi

 

Kanbee (also Kanbei, Kambē or Yoshitaka, December 22, 1546 - March 20, 1604), was a mighty Samurai of the late Sengoku and the early Edo period. Yukimura (also known as Nobushig Sanada, 1567 - June 3, 1615) was famous from the siege of Osaka, while Hideyoshi (27 March 1537 - 18 September 1598) was a famous Samurai from the same period, who came up from the peasant class to become one of the major Daimyo's and an Imperial regent, as the 'aristocracy' lost its tight-grip on things.

 

Western sites reverse the names, I've copied the paper for the middle line, as the Japanese fashion is to place the 'surname' or family name first - Walter Hugh, obviously I wasn't a Samurai, but once I was a warrior, and Donald J. Trump; you can go fuck yourself, you bone-spured, shirking, gobshite, wanker.

 

Close-ups; the decoration is exquisite, presumably some kind of tampo- or pad-printing, the detail is like ink-jet quality, or three-dot magazine colour of the 1970's. And I assume they are all based on surviving or replica sets of armour from Japanese museums - like the Artesania figures from Spain's Royal Armouries?