G is for Group of Galactic Gewgaws!

In addition to the stuff we've seen, there were few other sci-fi/spacey things acquired at the recent Sandown Park toy fair, and we're looking at them now!

 

Just a bit of fun! There was an astronaut too, but he was too silly, this at least has the saving grace of being an alien, and they might actually look silly . . . except, Fermi says they probably don't exist! Rocket USA  'Big Key', made in "Chy'nah, very-very bad, biggly bad!".

 

TV related, so they ended-up here (see Power Rangers below!), and probably my favourite cartoon as a kid, having Tom sliced into twenty sheets by a ham-prep' machine, only to pop-back whole a second later, priceless, when you are six! These are from the '92 movie, rather than the more recent one.

 

I had a feeling I'd already got one of these, when I found two on a stall, but grabbed the better one anyway, and in point of fact I'd actually blogged a previous purchase, over a decade ago;

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2014/10/r-is-for-rocketry.html

 

And, it's a minter, so this one can be fired at some future date, in the interests of science, and original video-copy production!

Five Days Later - Fuck me, it's getting boring now Bushy! It took him both over ten years, AND five days to find!

 

On Etsy now;

 

https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/4472409517/vintage-lionel-porter-chemical-rocket?

https://projectswordtoys.blogspot.com/2026/06/seltzer-science-using-chemicals-found.html - How sad, how tragic, what a pathetic little man he's presenting as, what a twat?. The answer to his question ("I never had anything like this. You?"), is, of course - yes, I got one ten years ago, and grabbed another the other day, and you know it!

 

Nice carded set which ID's one of the sets which were still needing ID'ing,

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2020/09/mmpr-is-for-mighty-morphin-power-rangers.html

 

Kidz Biz (double-zed, edgy, urban!), they are the ones also issued in capsule key-rings, and the cards are also tieing-in some of the accessories which were confusing me, re. the Micro Machine sets!

 

On the left a larger skeletal monster/alien type (imp/devil?) of unknown origin, on the right a figure sold as MUSCLE but which is part of the Franco-Italian knock-off line, Cosmix, doing smaller-scale copies of figures from Panosh and Mattel, well covered here;

 

https://www.littleweirdos.net/2016/04/cosmix-french-muscle-ninja-mites.html

 

Altogether, an odd assortment, we'll have to see what turns up at Twickenham, in two weeks time?

U is for "Up Yer Ladder, Pal!"

This is an odd one, I've seen foreign-language versions, usually by equally esoteric makes as this one, Action GT being a TV-marketing enterprise who had some success in the late 1970's-1980's with mostly Hong Kong imports branded to them here, and other firms (Pressman, Remco (Big Trak?), Schmidt Spiele, Tyco &etc.) elsewhere, relying on a business model which seemed to consist of big-box, statement toys to 'make your year's money over/with the Christmas season'!

 

The game itself is a pretty random luck-oriented one, but obviously the 'hook' is the large apparatus which can be set up on the floor for the family to gather round and marvel at while smiling inanely at each other, and laughing a lot, in the - then - prevailing fashion of 'nuclear' families in televisual advertising!

 

The 'ladder' frame is manufactured in a rather flimsy polystyrene, unlike the figures and sacks which are all made of a hard-wearing material which could be a dense polyethylene, or a nylon of some type?

Having mentioned them; as toy/figure collectors our interest can be twofold, firstly, the obvious piracies of the Britains farmer have an appeal to completists, 'cameo' collectors or hard-core Britains' fans, while the supply of up to 16 sacks in up to four colours (you rarely see it complete, but you will often see it, incomplete, at the larger car-boot sales) might be useful for modellers or dioramists?

As you can see, the copies are around 40mm, and taken directly from the late version, PVC/vinyl farm-hand, who would have been easily obtainable in the former colony by whoever was pirating it for the Western buyers!

 

The hair-trigger hinges (they are weighted on the near-side, by being wider that the back portion), means you can drop your own figure, by himself, if you are too ham-fisted, but even if all players are being careful, three will usually send them all tumbling to the bottom, often carrying a few others with them. I'd imagine that with a shaky granny or fidgety juvenile involved, it became almost impossible for anyone to finish, and therefore a frustrating game which didn't come-out of the cupboard in subsequent years?

Original TV Ad.