U is for Untitled!

These came in a mixed lot from Peter Evans, back in 2023, and I've left them in the eggs, because they're way outside my remit, being sort of 3-inch action figures, and they may prove useful for little people's presents, or future swaps against something the collection/blog need more?

Issued/carried/released/commissioned by Simba, they will be the price-bracket above a Kinder egg, I'd imagine, and the figures will be based on some better-known Western figures. They look to be somewhere between Action Jackson and Playmobile.

Each comes with a useful number of accessories, but then Action Figures were only ever that mid-ground between swoppets and Action Man! And I'll tag them ABS and Propylene, as they are likely one or the other! Simba's larger capsule toys, box ticked, many thanks to Peter.

V is for Very Fine Sight!

During Brian Berke's recent sojourn in Italy, he bought this pair of larger scale items, as rather brilliant toy-related mementos of their visit, and nothing more iconic than a Vespa moped . . . with added babalicious babe from Babalonia!*

 

In Brian's own words;

"The two wheeler riders in Naples and surrounding area are positively demented.

This may be part of the universal road rage post Covid lockdown, though I suspect they were this way before.

The roads are narrow, which does not deter 2 wheelers from passing cars both into oncoming traffic and curbside at the same time. They go down pedestrian only streets. There are the equivalent of Zebra crossings. The custom is walk across and ignore traffic? Do not make eye contact. It was quite unnerving. Two wheelers don't stop they weave around you as you cross.

So I had to purchase this as it represents the most notable memory of the trip. The scale is larger than I would like but I wanted to buy it in Italy rather than later. The figure was the only one I could find, bought in the US which surprisingly it pretty accurate in terms of rider dress code near the beach!

It has gone on display temporally while the trip is fresh in the memory."

For a speculative purchase, they work very well together, and at 1:18th scale (approximately 90/100mm or 3-inches) the bathing beauty from American Diorama looks perfect on the Maisto moped, and one can imagine her posing in the warmth of the evening's setting sun, in one of the Piazzas, while her beau fetches a soft-scoop ice-cream cone!

We have a scaler, with the Crescent shooter, it's a trope which has rather fallen by the wayside in the last few years, not least because of everything else which has been going on, but I intended to have a couple on the planned, dedicated photo-station, once I'm fully settled, and we'll get back to 'berserker' comparisons!

As part of an eclectic display of odds and ends!

Brian shot an actual one in situ!

Many thanks to Brian for these, it's nice to have something a little left-field, and with a first for American Diorama (poured PU resin), it also adds to the underused Maisto (doe-cast) Tag . . . and, it's a babe in a bikini!

* I think I nicked that from Bill & Ted!

C is for Canoes - 6 - KiKo 'Oklahoma Tribe' Carded Bottle Bag

You may remember or be familiar with KiKo (as I will write it)* from Eric Williamson's old site, or more generally their licence to produce some Airfix stuff under their packaging, including, notably, the Medieval fort play set - Robin Hood, well, Brian Berke has sent these to the blog, for a bit of contrast as part of the 'Canoe Season'

 

On the Airfix licence era stuff the logotype is clearly KiKo, on this packageing it's K - I K - O, while I'm sure I've seen it Ki-Ko, and the address details just use the simple Kiko, so you can take your pick!

 

Mexican produced Wild West set, with the almost (for Central/South America) de rigueur Marx copies (the 3" figures being used here), and other accessories, which don't appear to be Marx per se, but the Teepee looks familiar, so it will probably be a copy of someone's?

The bag shots are a bit misleading - given this is a canoe season - as the canoes are almost totally hidden by dint of being stuffed inside the stacked Teepees, which led to some confusion when I was sorting out the images (months after I'd dumped them all in one folder!), as there are several other yellow canoes and a couple of fatter/wide-bodied ones!

 

But in the end I got them all sorted, and you get two, with three crew, two Indians firing bows and a trapper type paddling like fury! These are not Marx copies either, Marx barely bothered with a canoe, using it sparingly in Wild West sets, but chucking it in Boy Scout sets instead, where I think there was a paddler? I don't know whose production these may be based on, but the canoe seems to be a Kiko original, so maybe the crew are too?

 

Kiko on the left, 3" Marx donor in the middle and a Crescent sizer on the right, this is a 'beach-toy' sized set if ever there was one, but I guess, given income levels and the climate in Mexico, it will be designed to be played with outside, in the dirt or dust, and in all weathers?

 

The TeePee, I'm sure I've seen the decoration before, but can't think where, so if anyone has a clue, let the rest of us know! It's also scaled for 54mm figures and gets rather dwarfed by the chap who's supposed to fit his family in it!

 

Many thanks to Brian for these, it's really all about the canoe!

M is for Monkey Business!

It's serious stuff, these are big monkeys; they tip-up tanks and swat bi-planes like gnats! It was going to be a 'T is for Two . . . ' but then I remembered the last image, which is a plethora of great apes!

This came in a few weeks ago now (feeBay I think?), branded to Imperial, but not one of their 1970's King Kong knock-offs, this is a modern issue (can't remember if it had a mid-to-late 90's date or a 2000's), although with a near constant stream of remakes, it's still probably a Kong knock-off!

Also it's that weird sort of clammy silicon rubber with what feels like a mixture of plastic pellets and slime inside, meaning it can be distorted by stretching or squeezing. Also; unlike the Works rhino we looked at a couple of years ago, the pose means you can change his stance quite a bit within the bounds of realism - have him straining forward, holding back, or arched opposite to the taken shots.

03-05-18 - I've checked them both and the monkey is 2009 (Imperial) the rhino from The Works was Toy Major (2005), all other consumer data on both bodies was identical, so they came from the same place!

Also interesting in its own way - as a minor curiosity - this came in a couple of weeks ago (Charity shop biscuit tin, I think - there have been several bulk farm and zoo come-in recently!), and while it looks like a bog standard counter-box generic from the 1970's; dense polyethylene, burst of spray-paint (silver tummy!), red mouth and dotted blue eyes, it's actually clearly marked 'CHINA'.

I would imagine the counter-top dispenser and generic bits are about right, but it must date from around the time of the handover (1997), or just before and may well be from older moulds, maybe a HK version will turn-up? You may remember Terranova sent us shelfies of dinosaurs I recognised from the 70's, but in pretty current packaging (were they dated to 2007?) for a Rack Toy Month, so there are still some old mould-tools soldiering-on in production banks.

Speaking of Terranova, Brian sent this to the Blog ages ago, and it was waiting for this post to materialise out of thin air! Lucky it did then! No, if the other two hadn't come in, I would have used it elsewhere, he sent some interesting celebrity statuettes in the same image-set; one of whom may soon be sharing the Nobel peace prize with Kim Jong Un (who will have succeeded in peacefully splitting the two Korea's for ever and guaranteed his dynasty's continuation before he's even had kids!); you can't make it up . . . the world really is going mad!

The main man; King Kong, bothering the Empire State building! It's interesting to see the different takes on realism and finish, although it would be better if the apes were in 'movie scale' clinging to the top, rather that oversized as these all are.

There's a couple of Crysler's too (New York tourist shop!), and I vaguely recognise the multicoloured cartoony one but can't place it . . .Nicolodeon? Comedy Central? MTV? Opening credits or brand mark for something I'm sure, but previously without a giant ape!

I'm guessing they are all poured resin, but the Chrysler on the right looks good enough to be die-cast alloy? Thanks Brian - they'll all get used in the end

A is for Alice in Wonderland III - "Curious'er and Curious'er" said Alice

We'll finish-off today with a more conventional figurine, which being of a human is more of a lifelike representation and less of the cartoon caricatures of the earlier figurines we've seen here today.

This is - I believe - from a larger set of figures (I think I saw a couple of similar ones on evilBay recently), not sure on a maker (possibly after a ceramic model by Goebel or from the Spanish company Palés) and there are no markings on the polystyrene model, which is decorated by airbrush through stencils, maybe originating in Japan?

I photographed all of today's figurines/novelties on Adrian's table ages ago, and wasn't really thinking about size at the time, I think this was a little bigger than the others at about 3½ or 4-inches to the 3-inches of the others, but you may be able to add an inch to all those measurements?

Again, definitely showing the lack of markings on this figure, I'm not suggesting anyone as maker beyond the above vague possibilities, the quality of the face is quite European doll-like in execution, the painting reminiscent of French composition/chalkware, although the gluing of the body to the legs/stand (too substantial to call it a mere base - I feel!) is quite like some of Hong Kong's production, so your guess is as good as mine, or your knowledge - superior!

Added 05-04-18 - It's a watch-stand, seemingly issued under both the US Time and Ingersoll labels - thanks to Matt for the heads-up and there's a link with his comment, Matt has the Alice in Wonderland Blog.

A is for Alice in Wonderland - II - Novelties

The other figure of 'Mr. Chamberlin' was a bit of a giveaway with his arse-written Hong Kong, but heay; it was a bit of a last minutes thing - which reminds me; apologies from any typo's over the Easter break, but I short of panic-loaded 11 posts over two days last week, while the cat's head was exploding - long story I won't bore you with, but suffice to say I learnt kitchen-paper doesn't soak-up much puss [euwww!] and he's fine now, but thinks the collar is an evil alien; out to get him!

Hong Kong 'Nodding-head' novelty, the difference between this and this morning's Marx figure is no greater than the difference between this morning's Marx figure and the Marx figure below.

Having never seen the movie I can't say for sure which of the three is closest to the movie imagining, or why the other two are so far off, I contemplated one of them being a different character, but they all have the price ticket in the top-hat, so are definitely trying to be the same chap!

A gratuitous shot of his feet, I shot this primarily to show it's unmarked (other that the rump-branding), so not necessarily made for Marx even though it looks like the sort of thing they were commissioning in the British colony, as the next piece [probably] ably demonstrates.

Marked clearly on the Dormouse's rump as being from one of the Hong Kong factories/suppliers; this ramp-walker - with the third distinct 'Hatter today - is in a polystyrene plastic and painted in the style of Marx's other HK stuff. Now the mad one has white hair (would have made a better Chamberlin - just not stuck to a dormouse!), but the nose is closer to the swivel-limbed one we looked at earlier.

Yet; he has a very different countenance overall? I'll look-up some movie stills before publishing (if I remember to read this in 'preview'!) and try and work out which is the more accurate, but I suspect the swivel-limbed figure from this, morning is the best likeness, being controlled by Marx in a US (or the Swansea?) factory, the ramp-walker is next closest having some Marx oversight of the contractor and the nodder -  an inaccurate, rushed HK novelty, not that they aren't all novelties - they are!

I rememebered - Marx swivel IS the closest (but the hair's wrong), the Hong Kong one is next, the Marx walker looks nothing like either of the movie characters, but has the closest hair!

A is for Alice in Wonderland - I - Twizzle Town'alikes

Not exactly Spaghetti Trees, I left the 'Hong Kong' on one of their arses for starters and problems with the paint thingy meant I couldn't get the moustache right or turn all the hair grey, but hay-ho, first attempt at an April Fool's, maybe I'll do better next year!

He was - of course - a novelty Mad Hatter from Lois Marx promoting the Disney movie Alice in Wonderland! The resemblance to the Twizzle Town figures from Britians is down to the fact that this type of 'animated flat' goes way back to the days of wood and paper toys, carried to both Marx and Britains through Japanese and German tin-plate.

The one on the right has the body the wrong way round, but shooting them in a hurry at a show I didn't have time to fix it. Also; while I wove a tale around out-workers for the gag, I think it's just a late version, sans paint.

The Mad March Hare, also undecorated and with that chocolate-brown head, looking both perfect for Easter, and more like the Nesquik bunny! You can see the Marx 'disc' on the red body in the right hand image, while the license message acknowledging Disney's property rights is occupying the same spot in the left hand shot.

More views through the looking-glass later.

PIOT is for Peace In Our Time

Happy Easter everyone, I thought we'd look at one of the least known corners of our hobby today as I happened to pick these up for less than a tenner in a charity shop the other day (I know, but those old dears have all the reference works out the back you know , and it was less than a tenner, so I did OK), and they are very hard to track down.

Neville Chamberlin's ill-fated trip to Germany in 1938 was rather brushed-over at the time, and all but forgotten in the heady chaos of 1940, and the shoe-in of Churchill to lead us in our 'finest hour' which became the prase-de-jour however, once Hitler had been dealt with and the threat from the East become more obvious, Chamberlain's ringing endorsement of dealing with strongmen was remembered for the first-class naivety it was.

By the early 1950's parents were regularly chiding their unruly children to bed with the threat of "Peace In Our Time with Mr. Hitler's ghost if you don't behave and settle-down quickly", Squaddie's going off to fight Communism in Korea scrawled PIOT on their helmet covers when the QM wasn't looking and then blamed each-other to get off RP's, while on Humberside striking Dockers even had rubber-stamps made-up in the tool-sheds to leave oxide-red PIOT's on mounted policemen's' horse's rumps during the less than peaceful ruckuses' that accompanied their Industrial Action!

So it's unsurprising to find that the nascent plastics industry soon adopted this cultural meme for the production of novelty figures of Mr Chamberlain with the offending letter he had waved all those years ago tucked into his headband.

The above figure (counting out the 'peace'es') has been credited to both Rafael Lipkin and Chad Valley, although - with its resemblance to Britains 'Twizzle Town' circus - I wonder if it was an early, undocumented experiment in polymer from the - then still - hollow-cast experts? The unpainted one (with body on backwards) could be a later issue but is more likely to be an out-painters cast-off, as unpainted he has no distinctive moustache?

Chamberlin was always depicted as a slightly lunatic character with his hair all over the place and the look of a childish simpleton in these novelties and by the time I was born (1964) the phrase was one every school-boy knew, but the cultural overtones had all but disappeared - along with the novelties - and it was just more 'boring' history!

This 'booble head' figure of Chamberlain (looking fruitlessly in the dirt for the lost peace) is in a phenolic or early styrene resin and could be Kleeware, early Airfix or whoever did the crazy-clown circus?

Nice to finally track them down and at less than a tenner - Bargain! Have you ever seen any readers?