E is for Eye-Candy - Best of the Rest

After I'd done the first two posts/shots (posts below this one) I had a sort-out, and this is the rest of the odd's and stand-alone's, here at the moment, and an eclectic bunch they are too, but mostly bigger than the previous 'mini' Bots.

The large red one, to the left, is a huge blow-moulded, thick-walled, hollow PVC lump, possibly Japanese rather than Hong Kong, and probably 1970's, but unmarked, with plug-in PVC arms and ariels/helmet-guns. The other one, to the right, is one of the Arco-Mattel bendies, with plug-in 'ethylene weapons and a Hong Kong sticker on one foot. The other red one, between them, is unmarked apart from a 'C1' on one foot, and probably quite modern?

Four eraser-types (x2 silver, orange and yellow) which may have missed previous posts on the subject are front centre, while the right hand green one is another M.U.S.C.L.E. (also Mattel), giving us a scaler with the previous post's image. The other green one is actually more of an action-figure, in polystyrene, with a self-tapping screw in his back holding all the moving parts together.

The other articulated droid also has a screw in his back and moving components, and is a Manta Force Karnoid from Bluebird Toys, some - probably not this one - via Tomy.  While the yellow individual on the far left is more humanoid, but his head is all 'mecha', so if it's not a robot, it's an android of some kind. The best reason AI will have for keeping some of us alive, is to provide them with headless, locomotive bodies!

 

As a Brucey-bonus, and apart from the green one above, the only other 'styrene ones I have here at the moment, these are modern, marked China and obviously come in different colour-schemes, I don't know how many sculpts there are, but they are more like the previous 'minis' in size.

S is for Sometimes . . .

 . . . I can be a silly-old Hector!

 

Having nearly (there was the forgotten skeletons shot!) managed to get out all the Halloween posts, on Halloween, which included some I was working on the same day, and others which were all together in the 'Halloween 2023' folder which gets added to all year, plus any contributions, the 'special' days become a panic and lead to a sigh of relief if they mostly come off, and having got everything out of Picasa, I was happy.

 

But, I just noticed a folder on the desktop which simply said 'Halloween' and I thought "Oh no, I've forgotten a/some contributions?" (as they tend to end up on the desk-top!), but thankfully it is two fanatsy lots, I'd put on hold for Halloween, and they can go anytime, so here's one!

 

Issued in the mid-late 1980's, you are supposed to get four polyethylene figures in a polystyrene 'toob' made to look like a lookout tower (just the sort of random 'folly' role-players like on the gaming table!), but mine had five if you include the dragon, which we saw here once before, so I must have two, as I know I grabbed that one at random, at the time, and posted it as unknown!

 

The figures are based on old Ral Partha figures I think, or some similar range, Aureola Rococo (minifigs) or AD&D? Pretty sure I had the lizard with a club in that dark-grey whitemetal, it used to oxidise to! And they were sold like this, the lid taped-on over the label, so a counter-top 'outer', with maybe 16 or 20-odd towers?

The four figures from my set, I do have some more, lose, somewhere, but this stuff is all in storage now, however, as always we can rely on Shaun at Fantasy Toy soldiers to show the rest! And a second series, which has escaped me entirely! He also thinks the contents sometimes exceeded the stated number, good way to get kids to go back for another set, I guess - convince them they are getting a 'forbidden' bargain?

The other side of the dragon!

D is for Donnnnn'Pushhhh Meeeeee!

After you've enjoyed the risibley funny sequels - which certainly didn't pan out in the real-life Iran, Iraq, Syria or Afghanistan - as empty-headed action-movies, it's worth remembering in the original, John Rambo (for it is he!) was a disgruntled, ex-grunt 'patriot; shooting-up his own neighbourhood!

On another site someone was asking about Rambo figures the other . . . month? A while ago anyway! So I've got this little overview together, despite most of mine being in storage, in fact; they never came out, but the narrative can still be expressed with what I do have!

The above shows the header card from a line of Maqueta Rambo (Rambo figures) rack toys coming out of Mexico, by Gemelo-Plast (Ruben Juarez Gemelo), who are using copies (lower centre) of older - probably Arco figures (lower left) taken from the marked Arco smallies (lower right) which we looked at back in the early days of the blog.

This was in the bag, another has a jeep, a third a jet-plane, and it's just a question of getting past it with a box-tick, so we can get back to the figures!

This is all the Gemelo's I've ID'd so far, each bag has a small mix with duplicates, so I can't be sure I've found all of them, 'bowman' and 'crossbow' Rambo's are missing for starters? Large lumps of - probably - polyethylene and I guess the odd red ones are 'commie-bastards' to be deaded? The standing firing is a simplification of an Arco (?) crossbow pose - you can see he still has the explosive arrow tip!

Here we have the smaller, definitely Arco and larger 'probably' with an Airfix figure for scale, below which we have a newer set, which while not portraying the Arco sculpts, do nevertheless carry an air of Rambo (or Platoon; is that meant to be Willem Dafoe's Sgt. Elias, second from the right?) about them. All the above - bar the Airfix cold-war warrior - are courtesy of Chris Smith I think, mine are elsewhere!

I've actually just grabbed these off the blog (so you should have seen them before!), as it (right-hand image, also from Chris) shows a bigger, baseless Rambo with bow, who may be a third iteration ofArco's, or another copy, but is of better quality that the Mexican ones, although is probably from the donor set for them?

On the left a set I found to explain another point sometime, credited to Black Temptation (an Amazon or Ali  Baba phantom brand if ever I read one!), we can see the first three of the poses (reading English-wise) are based on the Arco Rambo sets.

In the past we've seen a clear Rambo or Rambo knock-off in silver here, probably from a  rack-toy type mini-playset? While this crossover set mixed old Matchbox poses with Arco influenced figures and all the Reisler WWII prone figures!

V is for Variations on a Theme

As per yesterday's third post, when I first sorted these out for last Friday's  'Jiggle-O-Chrome' shots, I ended-up with three piles, they have now all been re-united in one bag. Unlike the Wild West figures, these are all marked on the base, but in common with yesterday's set share an eclectic mix of donor-paths.

So, the first pile was 'Armymen'; dark green, and included some figures taken from the old Arco set of Rambo figures, a Matchbox radio operator, Airfix running German infantryman and three prone figures of more original design, the left hand one is closer to the Atlantic Marine than the Airfix one, the middle guy might have a bit of Airfix Russian grenade-thrower about him, and the right-hand one looks vaguely European . . . Atlantic, Layla? I've seen those crossed ankles somewhere . . . Reisler? It is isn't it? The Reisler wire-cutting guy?

The second pile was paler 'Armymen', and had the variant of the Airfix running guy who seems to have originated in a set of Hong Kong figures sent to France, I know mine come from Samewise (link), there's another Rambo pose and I'm not sure about the grenade thrower, the prone are again interesting with a BAR-gunner and another Reisler-like figure, while the two standing figures look familiar but I can't place them right this moment - coastguards?

It was looking like they probably belonged together with the first lot, but I try to be diligent in these matters and was at the same time building a third, smaller pile of . . .

. . . bog-standard, Airfix umpty-something-generation copies in a third shade of green! Because they have been copied from already appalling figures, they do look a little different to the other two lots with a flashy join-line and lumpier detailing, but the base edge matches . . .

. . . and they all have the same mark? So as with the Wild West set, I think they do all go together, and further, the CHINA is the same as yesterday's set so I'm guessing they are from the same source.

All together and - again - from behind; is the grenade thrower from a WWII Japanese figure; BMC or AIP . . . Rado? And the Rambo rocket Launcher now looks a bit Cherilea modern/NATO 54mm swoppet!

I have heard several anecdotal (and not so anecdotal - from the horse's mouth) stories of rich Singaporean, Malaysian and Hong Kong collectors [or businessmen claiming to be collectors?] offering European collectors big-bucks for whole collections. Could that have anything to do with this sudden flowering of variety in army men pose-counts in sets which had been getting a tad tired through the turn of the century? Or are those Russians working with Chinese producers feeding their spare figures to the awoken very awake dragon?

More thanks to Peter E for another interesting and eclectic set of modern-production figures.

PS - I think all five prone figures are ex-Reisler sculpts? Brilliant . . . unless you're Reisler!

T is for Two - Movie Characters

Another couple of stand-alone pieces shoved together under the 'T is for...' trope, we're off to the movies today and it's to the VHS paradise of the mid-1980's 'Home Cinema' experience we turn!

Totally unmarked, but it's got to be John Rambo! Frown . . . check, clenched-fists . . . check, sleeveless-vest . . . check, knotted-bandana . . . check, M60 ammo-belt . . . check, bad-attitude . . . err . . . he lives in the controlled environment of a carded, self-seal bag, so I don't think so! Also Mattel (see below) had the licence at one point, through Arcotoys? A search was not helpful - we need more quality Bloggers!

I know - that was Arnie', but either of them could have been parachuted into each-other's 'action movies' without much change! Steve Wright in the Afternoon, best thing that ever happened to popular-radio - Wharkkwharkkwharkk . . . "Get the geese off!" I'm wondering if he may be from a short-lived board-game, given that he turned-up on his own and I've seen or found no others?

Battlestar Galactica was a lower-budget, rush-job designed to cash-in on the Star Wars phenomena back in the late 1970's, which was better than it might have been and Mattel grabbed a licence, issuing a couple of light-and-sound space-fighter toys each of which had a little pilot figure.

The figures are of a mini-action figure design, but come in at around the 50mm mark. Four points of articulation (hips - riveted loose through the groin; shoulders - sealed into the torso-halves) and are very hard to keep standing-up, they really only had to sit in their cockpits or die spectacularly as the owners narrative directed! The grey Cylon Warrior seems rarer than the earth-bound human. Note - the arms and legs are the same mouldings on both figures!

News, Views Etc . . . Mattel (and Arcotoys)

Last year's rumour of a merger/buyout/takeover between Mattel and Hasbro seems to have been a will'o-the-wisp, with nothing else heard since, but there have been a few Mattel stories over the last few months and in the meantime I came across another of the Arcotoys sets, which being almost a 'Rack Toy' (except in original pricing) can illustrate the boring bits!

Charity Shop - Arcotoys Inc - A Mattel Company

No date

Back to October last, and a clue as to why the merger talks fittered-out (yes; I could Google it all - but that would spoil the fun of saving cuttings and spinning a post out of them!) with Mattel announcing a freeze in quarterly shares dividends (no money!) after a 13% decline in sales. Shares 'plunged' 16% after the announced a $603.3m (£459m) loss . . .and of course the point-three is most important!

I have two or three toys of Phoebus now -

it must have been a popular movie at the time (1996)?

November saw Mattell's Barbie arm announce a new addition to the Shero line; it's first hijab-wearing Muslim doll, issued in honor of the US Olympic fencing competitor Ibtihaj Muhammad (bronze, 2016/Rio games), it was due to be released this summer. The Shero's (She-Heros, see!) also includes Misty Copland a US Ballet Dancer and first African-American principle at the American Ballet Theatre.

Another proposed Shero had been Malaala Yousafzai (the now UK based Pakistani schoolgirl who survived a Talib' assassination attempt . . . for being a schoolgirl!) and female scientists were being mooted (obviously saw what Lego was doing!), by March of this year there's also an Amelia Earhert -aviatrix, Sara Gama - Italian footballer, Nicola Adams - UK boxer, and Patty Jenkins - movie director.

Baddies on the left?

Goodies on the right?

However, in late march there was a bit of controversy surrounding the line when the family of Frida Kahlo - Mexican Artist; objected to the design of a doll depicting their famous relative, issued as part of the series, now renamed (for the UK market?) Inspiring Women.

Reading between the lines (well - reading conflicting press-releases), it seems some of the family had OK'd the design (which IS unarguably 'glammed-up') and others hadn't, so what was dressed-up as an attack on Mattel was actually internecine squabbling between the various descendents?

Crap - little pigeon

Crap on the gargoyles

Kill - little Pigeon

Kill the Berserker!

Later in March there was a story about the female leads of movie 'Wrinkle in Time' having their own Barbie dolls (Mattel press is always either Barbie, Hotwheels or share price!) but it wasn't clear if they were one-off's or part of a Barbie line? In the course of the movie-release 'puff-piece', Reese Witherspoon let slip that she is working on a project about Ruth Handler, founder of Mattel and Barbie!

At the end April (six months after the first of today's post's stories) their shares rose 4.4%, despite more poor results, as a new CEO took-post and the losses were blamed on the death of the Toysaurus and . . . you guessed-it . . . previous management!

M is for Mulan

A 1998 movie from the Disney stable, I won't pretend to know anything about it, as until I bought this from a charity shop I'd never heard of it! And until I Googled it; I didn't have the date!

Arcotoys Inc. a Mattel Company (yes - that Arco!) produced these 'jewellery' ('play' jewellery!) sets apparently in three slightly different configurations along with a larger battery-operated chirping-cricket toy, presumably as a tester to the likelihood of merchandise from the movie shifting?

Non-human items, after the real junk had already gone to recycling, all marred by the ring-loop for attaching to the plastic necklace. The tree is a flat, or relief sculpt with a plain back and semi-flat front while the panda is quite realistic, or at least bearable (geddit!) and the horse isn't too bad; pointy face though! The other three would have gone to 'recyce' if they weren't figurals!

The three humans, I have the chap in the middle in the unknown manga/anime zone of the unknown superheroes box in storage, so it's nice to have him ID'd, all three are about 30mm.

The figurines and tree are all PVC and the necklace, earrings and wristband, along with some of the smaller pieces were polyethylene.

After removal of the ring-loops and a quick touch-up with some PVA paint, they all look a lot better, the cherry-blossom with make a nice background scenic display shelf item; another set had an oriental doorway in the same shades of pink.

News, Views etc . . . Last call for PW Show!

Let's get the boring bits out of the way first, recent toy news in the newspapers:

Kiddybricks-call-me-Lego

Recently opening a new Lego Store in central London; Lego have now announced 'up to' four new 'Discovery Centres' for Australian shopping precincts.

Iraq

The 'i' announced on the 24th April that following the removal of the so called ISIS (surely ISII? Easier to call them Deash) from East Mosul; toy shops are making a comeback, with Teddy Bears, Dolls and Action Figures available again! They don't say how anyone on starvation incomes will be paying for them?

Hornby

Despite good news in recent 'News, Views...' and better forecasts from the company, there is still 'trooble int'boardroom' down there in Kent (Brexitland HQ) with a major shareholder trying to get one of the directors replaced and himself installed! It's unlikely to get through an all-shareholder vote at the AGM but has negatively affected shares.

Meanwhile the company; which also owns the Airfix, Corgi and Scalextric brand marks, has announced the 1st phase of their planned-recovery complete.

Hasbro / Kenner

News from the press-room of the bleedin' obvious saw Kenner-Parker issue a profits warning about three weeks ago (21nd April) with the announcement of a drop in Barbie sales, then on the 24th April Hasbro announced a 'better-than-expected' quarterly profit result - well fancy that!

Other Bits

This was in one of the papers a while ago, given to the Queen by the Chinese it's one of last year's presents, the deck and bridge look to be of the finest quality, matching old silver neff centrepieces in workmanship, but then it looks as if they gave-up trying on the crow's nests and masts? However: it's about HO-OO gauge compatible, so on the list for me to pay the Pink Panther to perloin for me, once I win that all important triple-roll-over on the Euro-lottery, that I don't buy tickets for!

This is from ages ago, but is worth a quick show; a couple of Preiser (or the new-generation Noch?) figures illustrating a front-page banner [inset] for an in-depth article on earnings inequality in the 'i' back in September.

Also falling through the publishing-timetable hoops here at Smallscaleworld Towers was this Metro fluff-piece from last December with B-B-B-B-B-B-Bob Mortimer putting in a mention for childhood poopertrooper-parachuter Toy Soldiers and having it illustrated by some fresh out of Journo-school picture-editor's junior numpty with a modern 'Made in China' copy of the old Tim Mee GI's - look: no parachute; you dimwit - in three years time he/she'll be on Sky News calling wheeled-APC's "Tanks" - you know I know it!

The nature of Arco-Mattel Mobile Attack Cannons seems to have gone from badder to worstest! "Mr. Ford, Mr. Ford - Herald Tribune here; is it true we can buy any colour of Mobil Attack Cannon we like, as long as it's pink?"

I can't remember which paper this came from but it looks like a Metro column-filler, it's a very fanciful stock-image probably by some Victorian copper-plate artist and needs at least five banks of oars each side. While you'd need at least twelve Zvezda kits just to scratch-build the hull! However, it could be lazer-cut?

This is another one which has missed previous News & Views posts for a while now; the UK mobile telephone network '3' has had various adverts in various sizes with a general aura of nostalgia provided by toy imagery, here a knock-off (or real?) Muppet spews-forth knock-off (or real?) My Little Ponys! Blehhrrr! Weird marketing from those crazy guys at marketing-central! "I puke rainbow-ponies, buy me"

Plastic Warrior's 32nd Plastic Toiy Soldier Show - It's tomorrow peeps!

There is a toy soldier show, tomorrow, here, in England's green and pleasant land, it's the 32nd show - in a row!

There will be rare and valuable single figures for amounts of geld that make your eyes water, there will be bags of Hong Kong tat for pennies and everything loose, boxed, bagged or carded in between; they may be painted or unpainted, home painted or paint-stripped; they may be old, new or copies; military, paramilitary or civilian, spacemen, space-warriors or space aliens, historical, fantasy or TV related; Wild West or wild animals; there will be premiums, sets, bits, parts and handfuls; they will be from 15mm (or below) to 200mm or above; they may be hard polystyrene, soft polyethylene or floppy, bendy, stinky PVC and they will all be under one roof - you need to be under it too!

An updated aerial shot of the scene of the crime, it doesn't add much to previous posts, but it's new imagery!

The map version may be easier for some; that Hospital Bridge Road is the easiest way in I think; turning into Percy Road especially later in the morning as you don't have to worry about the one-way nature of the dual-carriageway, or the traffic!

There is plenty of parking, the local railway station is quite close and further details can still be found from the on-line PW portals:

PW on Facebook

Blogger - The PW Blog

[a bit late to-] eMail; pw.editor@ntlworld.com

"Your target for the morning gentlemen -

The parkungspaltzen at Polimerfürtt - try not to miss"

There may be a further post here at the Smallscaleworld around Greenwich-tea-time, I couldn't possibly say for sure . . .

C is for Contribution Fortnight - X - Arco Cap-firing 'Space Tank' SPG from Clarence

Along with the playset we looked at the other day, Mr. Clausey also sent me a couple of shots of what is best described as a bloody-great behemoth of a thing! Clarence has been picking these up off eBay when he sees them and has a battery of five now!

Described by Clarence as an Arco cap-firing tank, I started to dig-around Google and see if I could find out more about it, in fact I couldn't find anything, until I added 'Combat Force' to the mix, whereupon I found the item currently listed on evilBay for 50-odd dollars, but credited to DSI (Diversified Specialists Inc.) Toys [or DSIT], so I pulled the post and frantically emailed Clarence to double-check the Arco connection.

The enemy appears to have got round behind the battery (of guns) to interdict the [battery] power source!

Clarence got back to me with an assurance that Arco is moulded onto all his examples, along with other marks (MAC*XI), so we can assume that they (Arco) supplied these 'Weapons of Mass-destruction' to DSI. More womble'ing on Google reveals that DSI specialised in this kind of toy alongside dolls (far more money in dolls than we 'boys toys' fan's imagine), between 1970 and 2003; when they ceased trading.

As Arco were themselves absorbed by their then parent Mattel in 1997, having been bought by them in 1986, and with the DSI version being boxed in 1991, they were clearly marketed by Arco, with Mattel's permission, probably sourced from an anonymous OEM in China and shipped through 4th or 5th parties to DSI . . . such is the modern toy industry, and with everyone in the chain wanting a percentage or two of profit . . .

. . . but enough of the boring bit! This thing automatically fires 8-shot cap drums, while driving about! It's like a self-propelled Lone Star six-shooter! Well . . . eight-shooter. Compatible with standard 3¼" (90-odd millimetres) action figures popularised in the 1980's following Mattel's famous Star Wars franchise figures from the late 1970's, it has three dedicated stations for them, two cupolas 'up front' with hatches and a seat 'up-top' for the gunner.

The mechanism is similar to that in a cap-gun but a one-way, inner, toothed-gear wheel - set onto the same face that receives the ammunition 'magazine' - is operated by battery-powered electric signal, to trigger firing, rather than a manual mechanism.

The same power-pack provides movement forwards and in reverse and all in all the DSI, Arco or 'and' Arco-Mattel rendition of the Remote Control Combat Force Ring-cap Firing Mobile Attack Cannon [Battery Operated] is a beast!

Under all the weaponry is a basic M1 Abrahms chassis, but the beast reminds me more of some of the experimental 1950's Russian SPG's which turned-up in ex-Soviet museums after The Wall came down! Really it's a 'Space Tank'!

Thanks for sharing it with us Clarence

06th-Feb - Late Addition - Arco on Nu-Earth!