N is for November's Sandown Park - Erasers

And not just any old erasers, but that the bulk of them are probably Diener Industries, one way or another, the other factor being that they are also French premiums, but may, due to petroleum, also be British! I picked these up a few at a time, every time I passed the chap's stall, and wish now I'd hoovered up the last few, but they were mostly duplicates, I think!

 

These are probably not Diener, as they are proper eraser-rubber, but I thought they'd go very well with the Lik Be (that's LB of course!) and Holly anthropomorphic musicians, in a future comparison post / battle of the animal bands! They are also pencil-tops.

 

These are all clearly marked Diener Ind., with a '(C)' mark, and are a mix of generics, Disney, cute and a Fontanini clown-sculpt knock-off, along with an Easter basket of bunnies! And they may well belong to several sets, or even some of the sets below, as explained as we go.

 

These are unmarked, but are manufactured in the same smudgy silicon-rubber of all Diener's 'erasers', which were always shit erasers, as they just smudged pencil around the page, leaving everything looking awful! Again, they could be from more than one set, but the paint ties them into the premiums below. The red kitten is a slightly different sculpt to the yellow one in the previous shots - head moved to ease undercuts?

I can't work out if this is supposed to be some kind of anthropomorphic Viking, or a French TV character? Nor is it clear if it's damaged, poorly fettled or had a charm/key-ring loop removed?

 

These two, both Disney, are marked Esso and Disney Prod., and were a set of premiums, given away with Esso fuels, defiantly issued in France, the complete sets are to be found in the pages of Jean Piffret's book Figurines Publicities, but, as I think I've mentioned before, we had some when we were kids, not from this set, but from the set of woodland (or other) animals, some of which are in the upper shots.

 

Indeed, the slightly Beatrix Potter'esque pricklepin in the same flesh pink as the odd figure above, is one of the items on my nostalgia wants list, as it was in my pencil case until I was far too old to have affection for such things! And the three little pigs would also go with the other musical mammals!

 

While these are just marked (C) Walt Disney Prod., but you can see where the Esso has been obliterated on the tool, so there was probably a commercial issue too, at some point.

 

Therefore, I think a couple of the sets annotated by Piffret, as French, were issued here, also with Esso, at some point around the late 1960's or early 1970's, possibly without the paint highlights of the French and more commercial Diener issues. There were more sets issued as premiums in France, though?

 

Four other, non-Diener, non-Esso types, with, from the left a grotesque facemask pencil top, this was probably from the era of cereal-premium totem-pole funny-faces and the semi-flat African mask charm type premiums. Next is a vampire, or Dracula type, in his casket, and just waking-up, by the look of it!

The footballer is bigger that the Hong Kong painted ones, issued as either key-rings or pencil-tops, but may have been the inspiration for them, and he is a pencil top too! While the 'finger fright' rubber-jiggler just came with them to make a round-number! The first three being, again, 'proper' eraser-rubber.

M is for May Visit - TV, Fantasy and Sci-Fi

So, to the last of the plunder I picked-up in May, and it's all the less than realistic or historical stuff, with a little bit of everything!

 

Another Weetos cereal premium, I seem - over the last few years - to have gone from waiting for the full set in any colour to how many do I have in all colours?! A knock-off MPC and a rocket which might be a missile from a big-box set?

 

Four Phidal 'Busy Book' superheroes, or villains, I already have the second from the left, but without the freezy-fronds, and it was the Archer which kicked that particular odyssey off, back in 2017!

 

Christmas cracker angel, I have quite the orchestra now! Unicorn's were Unique or The Works I think? A Battle Beast sans weapons, often the way, but I do have spares bags of odd action-figure sized accessories, so there will be a mating-up session one day. And a Gem putti/Eros/Cupid cake decoration.

 

Those generic superheroes again, I did find their post the other day, with help from Brian we'd ID'd them one side of The Pond at least as both 'Aircraft Warrior' (JPW I think), or Warrior Super Fighters (as a generic), but - in both cases - sans these little companion figures (here missing the blue one),

 

A vinyl-rubber modern Santa, and an older styrene one, the latter sold as a cake decoration, the newer, probably as part of an eraser set? Soon be Christmas . . . again!

 

Elves or children? Obviously from a board game, and they seem to be moving on tippy-toe, and shushing, with their finger, so maybe they are night-caps, and it's a bedtime game?

 

I thought this was one of the Gormity figures from Ideal we saw, in some shelfies a year or two ago, but they were gunmetal and different poses, so he's still a mystery, and a chunky one!

 

Ben 10 on the left, prbably the green one too, and maybe the chap with a red shirt, I think the last one is Star Wars? While the gezzer in the middle looks like a Disney Princess type knock-off, some kind of price or suitor?

 

Two Mighty Morphin's, Micro Machine on the left, unknown mini on the right.

 

Two of the Hing Fat 'Galaxy Cowboys'. 

 

A mixed lot, with a rack-toy Ninja, Iwako eraser bear, Toy Story's 'Combat Carl' from Phidal, slightly damaged, poured-resin ceremonial bear (needs it's pole-crown replaced), a Munch Bunch banana, and what is, I think, Jess the cat from Postman Pat?

 

UFO with little Aliens, I actually saw these in the store on a more recent visit to Peter, and I can't, for the life of me, recall if they were drowning in slime, or surrounded with candies, but it was one or 'tother? Green or purple, and they are in that stiff but softish synthetic rubber/PVC replacement elastomer, while the saucer is a bog-standard 'styrene. Note they have charm-loops but no chains.

 

Many thanks as always to Peter for most of these, I got the Phidal's and the game pieces from the Toy project I think, he found everything else.

T is for That Tortle, No, Turtapin, no, Terratoise . . . Doh!

Speaking of Holly musicians (as somebody might have been?!), here's a small orchestra of them from my own collection! I've mentioned this tortoise several times over the years, and I think we've seen him in a mixed-lot post, and this picture has been sat in Picasa since 2016! And, actually, he's got cartoon hands (four digits), so he's neither a turtle nor a tortoise, and definitely not a terrapin! While, maybe only two of these are Holly!

 

The two probably Holly are to the right, neither associated with the Gygax stuff we looked at recently, and not seen together, in a set, I mean, yet, nor do they have the 900-codes of some of the Holly funnimals. But on the left, are cruder copies of both, in the style of stuff by Diener or Imperial, but not marked to either brand, however, manufactured in the same soft silicon-rubber which makes for shite erasers, but excellent pencil-smudgers!

 

The pig will be a lesser-make cake decoration, probably a set of musicians, but maybe just three (the 'Little pigs'), I don't know, while the Topo Gigio character (another left-hooker!) could also be the Portuguese Balin, but I don't think so.

F is for Follow-up . . . "Bestest follow-up ever, Mr Gruber!"

So, I posted the soaps and the Cherilea tank, quite close together, went off to work, came home to a cryptic comment and these in my inbox! It's only the US take on our Peruvian friend Paddington and his jar of marmalade, courtesy of Brian Berke in New York!

 

Three main views.

 

A somewhat pro-washing propagandist piece, obviously written by grown-ups!

 

Brian tells us Eden Toys held the US merchandising licence for the BBC series, so Bioessamce might be the maker, although only describing themselves as 'distributor'?

 

"Careful, you could damage a chap's nose with that!"

 

A much better sculpt than the British one we looked at earlier.

I hope Brain doesn't mind, but I've tried to get a better colour balance into the photographs, they had that slightly yellowish tinge you get with indoor digital photography sometimes, I've been getting it with my new camera, and while I took the blue of the box as the best guide, they now all look a little washed-out, but I think the colours are truer?

 

Best bear soap ever!

F is for Follow-up - Speedy Gonzalez

Just a quick follow-up to the Speedy Gonzalez from Res Plastics, which we saw in the Plastic Warrior plunder-post this morning, here compared to the relatively common, or commoner Kinder Egg steckfigure.

 

You can just make out the RP mark below the hole for a keyring or cord in the Res's hat.

 

That's it, Speedy Gonzalez from Res Plastics, on the right, Kinder on the left, a comparison! The Res is noticeably tailless. Both are polyethylene.

H is for Have a Happy Easter!

Well, I seem to have managed to get Good Friday, Easter Sunday and Bank Holiday Monday off, so I might get a bit posted, but I might go off and do something more meaningful! I fancy a walk this afternoon, but in the meantime, it is time for the regular look at what Scully & Scully have had in their window this festive season, courtesy of Brian Berke from the New York office!

 

Trees and shrubs were a noticable portion of the display, and Brian actually went back to shoot a couple more. I think the first one may have been flocked with micro poly-beads, but the others just look to be painted?

 

They seem to have moved them around between visits, so we get different lighting, if not different angles, hard to shoot flats anyway other than straight-on! We saw this sculpt (or Edition, as the flat 'publishers' call them), last year, but they always seem to use a new painting, when they do re-use the models.

 

 

A hundred-and-fifty meters to Easter people, a few circuits of the garden, or pop-down the corner shop and back, you'll be there! And if you don't use the carrot-car you'll get a bit of exercise!

 

These are a delight, every time, and just as traditional as chocolate eggs, although I was now years old when Kalani Ghost Hunter (one of my current secret pleasures on Facebook reels) educated his followers to the fact that the American's don't do chocolate eggs like the Europeans do, his mind was literally blown (non fatally!) by the wall of eggs in an average UK supermarket, and when he went back to the 'States, he showed us a Walmart display, and apart from a few Cadbury's Cream-Eggs, similar things from Reeses, and a few minis, there was nought!

 

And, many thanks, as always, to Brian for taking and getting these shots to us.