A is for Alien Partworks - Real Aliens, Really, Really Real Aliens, Everbody . . . They're Real, They ARE!

Yeah! Did I over-egg my belief-position on these in the title! I picked up five 'Aliens' at Sandown Park, which are interesting, and as non-articulated plastic figures, certainly deserve a place in the collection, but with sets on Star Wars and Star Trek running into the hundreds, not a bandwagon I'm ever looking to jump on, but, well, here's five!

 

Four of them are from 'The Real Alien Collection', from 1999, ladies and gentlemen, these are all real aliens from Alienville, Alieniania! Actually, it's worse, with long description of where they're 'really' from and who they are!

I just wonder why they always visit the dysfunctional drunk on a Tennessee trailer-park, a lonely Montana farmer, or the odd bloke with the Hapsburg Chin, in the council bungalow on the edge of a Norfolk village, rather than popping-down to Westminster, Buck' House or the UN General Assembly? Why do they frighten people retuning-home from the Pub, rather than frightening POTUS into behaving himself!

PVC figurines attached to a 'styrene or 'propylene base, they were mostly stuck in with sticky-pads, and for now I haven't decided whether I want to defenestrate them or leave them as they are, so imagery isn't brilliant, but you're hopefully getting the picture!

 

The Alien Collection flyer has the look of having been designed by next-door's unemployed teenager, in a Windows 98 version of poster-maker! But a quick perusal suggests they were quite serious in their delusions! There are, or have been, several alien-themed attractions or exhibitions in Blackpool over the years, including Tussauds, and clearly this lot was tied-into one of them!

 

I've had a quick hour of research into this set, and my conclusion is that only twelve figures ever made it to the light of day, that is, the eleven mentioned here as "Available now", and one further one, which probably 'broke the bank', and which I can't identify, as it's not too clear, without packaging, which is which, but it could mean I already have a quarter of those extant, to find!

 

'Followed for 23 minutes . . . '

At those speeds, it'll take them a billion-years to get home! 

 

One had come loose, so we can enjoy him, her . . . it, with detailed cosmic history!

 

Yeap, 'no longer in this form', but had the decency to let us know!

Hahahahahahaha!

'Four fingered hands' . . . no opposable thumb!

None of them, ever, seem to have opposable thumbs!

ET had opposable thumbs, and he was in a kid's production, FFS! 

 

A few years earlier, in 1996, Shadowbox also did a set, they seem to have managed about seven or eight figures, before folding, and took themselves slightly less seriously, including movie characters, like a 'man in black'. The fact that neither series went anywhere interesting, gives an idea of just how niche UFOlogy actually is?

And I say that as someone who has seen at least one UFO, but I'm a cynic and a rationalist, and I know that there will be a perfectly reasonable explanation for what I saw, which excludes all the above nonsense!

 

I do vaguely remember seeing some of these in the old Forbidden Planet shop in New Tottenham Court Road, back in the late 1990's, so they did everything they could, distribution wise, but there just wasn't the clientele?

 

And finally . . . . 

 

B is for Big Box of Bounty - Sci-Fi, Cartoon, TV & Movie

And, so, sadly, we reach the end of the Chris's parcel plunder posts, with some very interesting or useful stuff, and some oddities, along with best in box, which might surprise some, but not those who 'get' me! It's all the fictional or funny stuff today!

 

Power Rangers - I think the two micro-vehicles are Micromachines, along with the Putty Patroller, while the smaller articulated chap (in the style of Polly Pocket or Action Fleet) is still unknown to me, although there are some in the bags we didn't look at in this past post, possibly Playmates, or someone like that? While the Black Ranger is from those key-ring capsule toys.

 

These are fascinating, probably from a generic rack-toy, they are somewhere between the Gordy-Pikit rack-toy Bi-Trons and more formal toy transformer types, two points of articulation at the shoulders, and frontal tampo-printing in silver and gold, I'll be looking out for their set on evilBay!

 

Similar fayre; a larger PVC-alike, marked-up to DIC Productions, Playmates and Tsurubaya, so 'Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad', and again articulated only at the shoulders, and a smaller robot, missing a foot (could have one in the spares somewhere, from non-branded versions, or a similar Kinder type plug-together?).

 

The 'Free Comic Day' over-print is referencing an extant 'thing', the next date, is this coming May (2026), so I guess this was a promotional or freebie associated with that event, in the past. The event seems to be active in the UK, but the outfit behind it is based in the USA.

 

A fine selection of Manzingers, Grandizers, Transformers and/or Decepticons . . . or other things entirely! On the left is a stamper, with the design on it's base underside, at the back are two of the pencil-tops, which may form the follow-up to this post, while in front are two of the little mini's issued in the US by Ace Acme, but probably found over here as either capsule toys in gum-ball machines, or Christmas cracker prizes?

 

While the pair to the right are more traditional Keshi, with one 'proper' marked one (in the flesh-pink polymer), fully deformed, and one bootleg, almost certainly from gum-ball capsules, in blue.

 

OK, so, best in box! But first, the others . . . Three at the back may be from a short-lived toy line called Battle of the Planets (?) or something similar, each fold-open planet came with a handful of aliens associated with it, then we have two role-playing war games figures, one marked Grenadier (on the left) and numbered A 588, which I just cannot find on the Lost Mini's Wiki? The other, half-painted, looking like Minifigs? To their right are two marked Mega Bloks, from a line which has escaped me; I know of the little submariner figures, but these are fully-based stand-alone space/alien types?

 

Which leaves the two little 18/20mm blobs! BEST IN BOX! Against all the other contenders (the four sailors, the putty-coloured guy with the charm-loop, the lovely Napoleon on horseback, the two kneeling khaki infantry . . . ), and the reason is this;

 

I have two already, although I didn't realise it. I have one similar to the red one here, which is in the unknown GI's, as a presumed 1 or 2 cent/pence gum-ball prize, and I have a more obvious female space figure in pink, which is halfway down this page, and kept in the unknown space zone, now I know they go together, and there's more to find!

 

With a robot type and another GI 'space marine' here, I now have four in three or four poses (my blue one may be the same as this red one?)! Does anyone else know anything about them, have you got a bigger sample? They are all very clean, so maybe not that old, but I've had mine for over thirty years? Again, possibly cracker novelties over here, and maybe the small tree-crackers, at that?

 

I thought the finger-puppet was a new, fourth pose, but it's a duplicate, so may be a candidate for future painting, and I had hoped to have a fourth pose in the follow-up, as I found one in gold-paint, days before Chris's parcel arrived, but can I find it again? Can I hell, I'm sure it's in Picasa somewhere, and I've poured over the dozen or so folders it should be in, but I can't find it again, so it'll have to wait!

 

The dull yellow one is a Pokémon I think, and was found towing the French wagon when I opened the box, I have no idea on the bright yellow chap, who's been rather washed-out by the flash (Ben 10?), and the other has been seen before, here at Small Scale World, and is a rubber-jiggler, best described as a duck-billed platterpenguin! He wouldn't stand up!

 

Marked Bandai, I know nothing else about the gold winged chap, the robot is from the Buck Rogers eraser set, through which, upon Blogging here a while ago, we realised Bushy the Coppice really had started his counter-blogging nonsense!

 

The tall guy, looking a little like Moorcock's hero Elric of Melniboné (in a blazer!)  is probably a relatively recent Gashapon figure of some Japanese TV 'anime'? While the figure on the ground is . . . 

 

. . . looking like a Star Wars knock-off of Princess Leia? She's either a poorly-moulded short-shot, or another of the sand-washed beach finds, I think that Deetail Arab, in an earlier post, was, and she may go with that set of green knock-offs which were posted around the Internet about 15-years ago; were they South American, or Japanese?

 

Cartoony bits include a Jolly Jumper, faithful mount of Lucky Luke, most of a Gantoy knock-off of Muffin the Mule, missing his nodding head, he's a first sample, so stays! The weird doll-thing is looked-at below, while the pig is from one of those pre-Kinder, Hong Kong, novelty animal families.

 

We've looked at the rabbit as a teaching aid, and the orange-red blob is a Mini Bogglin, there's actually a huge bag of them in the stash somewhere, so they will get a proper post one day, but it's not a priority here!

 

This 'doll', I've seen before, that chap who was doing the beach-combing displays of polymer-shite washed up in the West Country had one, less this weird one-piece, clip-over, romper-suit, like this one his was missing its head, so your guess is as good as mine, but numerous enough to be known by some - are you one of them?

 

Manta Force from Bluebird Toys, figures and robots, I think these are the 'bots attached to the sides of one of the larger toys in the range, as they are mostly missing their bottoms (tracked units), as they were interchangeable, in that larger set.

 

Two seasonal house-burglars and a Kinder gnome, I think the one on the left is all new to me/collection, not sure on the gnome, it was a multi-issue line which ran for several years (most of a decade?), so there are a lot to find, and I do have lots about the place, but I haven't brought them all together, or compared them to the Sammler Katalog's, yet!

 

Two Matchbox, late production (Universal) on the left, a Bluebird Havok needing a base on the right, and one of those odd rack-toy 'Walker' pilots we've seen here, along with a Dr. Who viral robot 'Cybermat', actually in a much larger scale, but useful!

 

Two characters from Pif Gadget, the French kid's comic, here manufactured by Brabo, but similar figures were issued by others including Yolanda, a Micky Mouse pencil top and a Donald who looks to be almost certainly Xandria from the Netherlands? He's seen better days and all four could use a clean, but a sample is a sample!

 

Many, many thanks to Chris for all this autumn's fine plunder, he doens't have to do this, and it does all provide answers (the 'Best in Box' for instance) as well as new questions, and with so much to find, it's only the help I get from Chris, Peter, Trevor, John, Adrian, Gareth and co., which helps us all, to get to that ultimate bigger picture.

M is for Marx Space - Other Bits

A few other images I took while getting all these posts into some sort of sense or order, mostly from the loose stuff I had here in the sort of, last 24-months-odd acquisitions pile, there is plenty more in storage, I've always regarded all the Marx, MPC, Briatins, Timpo, Starlux, Elastoline &etc., stuff a bit 'box ticky' as there's tons of it around, plenty of collectors and loads of sites, but actually, in doing these posts, I've found either a dearth of decent Info, or gaps/conflicts in what is presented, or said, so when I do get everything together, I'll try to box-tick more of the supposedly common stuff!

 

These were already in the recent stash (rather than the collection), and they highlight one of the more interesting things I've noticed about all these Marx sets, each set has adjustments made to suit that set, which has lead to lots of variations to collect, more, I'm sure, than the few I've mentioned. Here - for instance - the tall rocket tower in gunmetal, doesn't sit flat, because it has two longer spigots in its hollow underside to local into a base-moulding that only came with some/one set/s.

 

While the yellow set here, which I assumed was a reissue, is actually a third size, to the two I've already highlighted. Also down the front you can see the triple-disc thing, now complete, along with a sort of searchlight thing, and the 'computer-table', now complete with its radar basket/salad dryer! Note also, the middle silo of the fuel-storage facility now has an extra collar at the base of the joined-pipe.

 

To which end, I shot these three, and you can see there is a 1.5/2'ish millimetre difference between the three mouldings, more than can be accounted for by shrinkage between harder and softer polymers, say, but, in fact they are all of similar density, although the gunmetal is a 'styrene, the mustard probably 'ethylene, and the lemon maybe 'propylene (and a Mexican re-issue?), however, the fact is - they are three separate tools.

 

Which does rather call into question, the whole 'mould (or 'mold') shot' shtick, some American collectors have been using to annotate their research, could we, in fact be looking at one tool list, from one factory, or one period in the company's history, or one auction?

 

We know some Marx figures (Warriors of the World and Miniature Masterpiece) could be produced in several factories (US, Hong Kong, Taiwan, 'Holland', Germany, Swansea), sometimes at the same time, and it looks like the same may be true for a lot of Marx's output, and that maybe, the tool lists are only a guide to some production, for a limited period, in one region/territory? While other, duplicate tools were authorised, or sent-out, with changes to the 'standard'?

 

A comparison between the 45 (Moonbase), 54 (Kennedy) and 70mm (Woolworths?) figures, It's not terribly clear, as I should have placed the tape-measure the other way up, so it started level with their feet, but you get the idea!

 

While I was shooting that, I shot this, the 7 humans from the 4-ich set.

 

But the white Alien was in another bag, which led to this all-Marx 'scaler' shot, with my only polyethylene 45mm, one of the Space Patrol, in the same metallic-blue as the 70mm robot. And I have another PVC-rubber crawling alien, not mucked-about with added home-paint, like the PVC sample!

 

The red figure is from the Mystery Spaeship, the yellow a re-issue 70mm, the sea-green a 4-inch original, and I added a spare 54mm silver astronaut, I also had here, there may be more of the smaller ones elsewhere in the storage.

 

The yellow 70mm was also in a separate bag, and has now joined these chaps, three reissues (Mexico, courtesy of Brian Berke) and one blue original, I think I have the whole set in blue somewhere!

 

Another one, I seem to have shot at some point, with a load of vintage stuff!

 

While Theo van der Weerden sent this to the Blog, several years ago, and again it seems to show the Mexican reissues (or are they from Marx Germany, Marx Holland, Heimo or a Charmore tool?!), in two shades of yellow and blue, with red, silver and green.

 

There were other things which seem to have missed the photoshoot, or just been lost in the first box-content's shot, a couple of the base-mouldings, again one was from the Moonbase sets. A NASA lifting body type thing, missing its missiles, in 'Marx' metallic blue, but made in polystyrene, got put to one side and not photographed, and there were other bits, so I'm sure we'll return to it all one day, not least - once I've found enough rocket sections, to make sense of all the part rockets, I've still left from the Kennedy and Space Patrol sets!

E is for Eye Candy - Accoutrements, et al, 'Colorform' Aliens

Here's a daft thing . . . I posted these about a year and a half ago, while living in the previous flat, and it was cobbled together from Internet images and a couple of catalogue scans, when I had this image in Picasa all along, of my set, which I took in 2021!

So, to be viewed in context, here's the post to which they should have been included;

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2024/04/c-is-for-colorforms-not.html

P is for Post Office . . . Rack Toys!

Specifically, the Cranleigh Post Office!

 

For those loyal readers who aren't aware of the fact (which is probably most of you), Cranleigh is a rather smart villagey-town in an equally smart corner of Surrey Hills, a 'stockbroker dormitory' for those who 'come down' from London at the weekend, in their shiny, black SUV-4x4-Crossover wanker's tanks, and where they park their trophy wives and Eton-bound brats!

 

It also serves some of the smartest villages and hamlets you'll find, like Plaistow, and the 'folds (Ifold, Dunsfold (home of the Hawker Harrier*) and Alfold) and is known to describe the feeling of "A mood of irrational irritation with everyone and everything." from the little-black-book The Meaning of Liff by Douglas Adams and John Lloyd, a surprise, comedy, Christmas-hit, decades ago, now, which was contemplative reading in our loo for years, and rather sums-up those stockbroker residents! Indeed, the less kind might accuse me of suffering chronic Cranleigh! I would - of course - point to the bell-curve (and what's happening in America right now), and argue it's not irrational.

 

* I served in the TA for a while with a Mr. Boxall who was in the paint shop at Dunsfold, and used to do all the markings for Hawks and Harriers, new and refurbishments! I don't know if he did the Red Arrows, but he told of the flurry of activity during the Falklands crisis.

 

Anyway, I have been driving round there, for work, recently, and saw a sign behind the trees in the main street saying "Balloons & Other Novelties", and thought that sounded interesting, so made a mental note to return, on a day-off, when it (which turned out to be the Post office) was open, and did so! Finding a quite well-stocked corner of cheaper toys, gifts, craft work stuff and, yes, novelties!

 

This is what I found;

 

The latest iteration of the set of six largish, but cheap dinosaurs we saw here under several brands about eight/ten years ago (Poundland, TKMaxx, 99p Stores and others), singly or in threes. Currently wearing Kandytoys moniker, and I think this is one of the second paint versions, we saw last time?

 

This was actually branded TKM, so must have been a bulk purchase at some point, from, probably, Home Bargains? A nice set of larger animals for those who collect such things, the elephant is nicely sized for conversion to a 25mm war elephant, but I'm not sure why the lioness is a completely different colour from the lion!

 

This was HGL (Grossman), and goes well with my British Museum ruminant Sauropoda (future post!), it is what it is, but collaged poorly due to its dimensions!

 

This is the 'other' Alien illustrated on the card of the Whitehouse Leisure one I found in Stansted the other week (https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2025/08/r-is-for-recent-rack-toy-roundup.html), without the Elf's ears, and while I didn't look closely on either occasion, and got both sculpts out of two purchases by pure accident, I think it can be assumed both come in both brandings? This is also badged Kandytoys.

 

I left him in the slime for now, as it has a heat-sealed lid, like a milk carton! The cap, however, is a whacky, LED-embedded, screaming-loud, multicoloured UFO, which is operated from the button on the top, but with a sealed-unit battery, won't last forever! It adds to a growing fleet of mini flying-saucers!

 

It was mostly dinosaurs though, and here another from a set of, err . . . several, each of which has a mini-saur in a decorative egg! I only got the one, to help with future ID'ing, and it shares branding with both Kandytoys (the reused sculpt above) and 'Jurassic Era', but is a new sculpt as far as I know

 

As do these (share the brand/brand-mark), but which, again, I think we saw years ago, as generics or in Pucator branding? These were cheap as chips (not that chips are that cheap these days; even a child's portion can be a fiver!), so I bought two, and will un-dig one of these glow-in-the-dark dino-skeletons, one day!
 

Heading back, I dropped into Borden to check the Poundstretcher for those Supreme knock-off Wild West sets - they hadn't had a re-stock, so no Cowboys (they were in the bigger set we looked at a few years ago), and instead I left with this soft-vinyl, metallic dry-brushed, Sci-Fi/Fantasy, robo-stego-dragon, for something daft like 70p? Bargain! And ideal for figures between 20-40mm.
 

Right, I've got a week or so to fire out as much rack-toy stuff as I can, and will try to make an effort!

R is for Recent Rack-toy Roundup

Or, at least, pocket-money stuff I picked up in a gift shop the other day! So, to Stansted Mountfitchet, from whence the Airport down the road took its name, and more on that visit in subsequent posts, but specifically, on the efficacy of the gift shop for toy and model figure collectors.

 

A soft, silicon-rubber skeleton in slime, and another coffin for the sub-collection of novelty coffins! This one made/issued in the UK by Whitehouse Leisure International of Dublin and err . . . Basildon! It's a bit of fun and I think we've seen the 54mm'ish figurine, separately, in bags, previously?

 

Poured-resin pencil tops from Elgate, a name which has appeared in the Tag List a couple of times, but on whom there are a couple of more substantial posts in the Toy Fair/trade-show reports queue, which may have these too! Approximately 40mm if you saw them carefully off their, err . . . oil drums!

 

Glow-in-the-dark aliens, again a similar one [actually, the earless one with lizard eyes on the back of the card] is currently in the queue, only found on Thursday (in Cranleigh Post Office!), this one is also Whitehouse (the other is under Kandytoys), and while a caricature type big-head/super deform, will add to the growing sidebar of glow-in-the-dark aliens! His (or her . . . its?) oil-drum has already gone to charity!

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!