1 is for 1st Rack Toy of the New Year!

Just a quickie, picked this up on my rounds the other day, it's BJ Toys again, and a new one on me, sadly the four main figures are a disappointment, but I have been noticing more and more Paint Your Own sets, a trend spotted here a few years ago, with the cheapo'sets in The Works one Christmas, and which have since featured several times a year!

 

And, of course, the real interest here is not the handful of 45mm Matchbox GI copies, but the four 90mm Chinese Army figures, original sculpts, although, sadly hollowed-out behind, so after painting - for display only!

 

But they are dressed as they would have been through the war with Japan (second Sino-Japanese War) and the Civil Wars, in total from 1927-49, and which ultimately brought the Communists to power. A bit different, and hopefully, a sign of interesting things to come, from the Toymen of the Far East?

BJ is for Bagged Jobbies

These were in some corner-shop a while ago, and I grabbed one of each, I dare say there are more in the set, and there are so many Dinosaurs out there, you never know if you're looking at all new stuff, or just re-branded stuff you've seen before?

 

To be fair, there aren't that many actually re-issues, as with the old 'army men' rack toys, most people seem to source something original, but one or two lines get more numerous clients. Equally, with these new (ish, they've been around for over a decade now) hollow, softish polyethylene figures, in two halves, they all look the same until you compare them, when they often turn-out to be new sculpts.

 

Paint is basic, compared to some of the rival products, but at a price-point of barely anything, that's hardly unexpected. Those WHSmith ones I was buying about 10/12 years ago, have had several re-issues (I saw them again the other day somewhere), but being higher production-values, they need a longer life to pay for themselves, profit-wise!

A reduced-scale sauropod and a nobbly kerthunkersaurus, BJ include a bog-standard palm tree, and the now almost de rigueur egg! The fact that any dinosaur in-scale with the two presented, trying to carry or pass that egg, would die, is apparently lost on the Toymen of China!

T is for Two - Roarsome Rack-Toys

A couple of quickies here, as - for now - they both remain sealed, so it's the home-shot equivalent of shefies! And snuck between the Chris donation posts as I mentioned yesterday, the civilian element of his lot later today, or after work tonight?

BJ Toys, and yes, you can snigger each time, they've been a constant now for a few years, and seem to have about half the corner-shop market round Surrey Hills and Hampshire Villages. These are the same hollow, thin-walled clip/plug-together polyethylene lightweights we've seen a few times now, rather basic, but they would paint-up well.

 

While this was in Peter Evans's latest parcel, and is interesting to me for two reasons, firstly, it's the more fantastical element of the set of five, which I sort of didn't buy deliberately last time (it was budgetary, but one had to stay on the hook), and secondly, it's a new branding of that earlier set which, when we looked at it here at Small Scale World was Poundland, and is now a Generic under Gem Imports stickers - second customer here? Thanks to Peter for spotting and saving this.

E is for Eclectic!

Around the same time as Chris Smith's parcel, i.e., a few weeks before the Plastic Warrior show, the third 'spring break' was a parcel from Peter Evans, which has been in the queue for ages, and I'm happy to thank him now and share the contents with the rest of you.

I think we've since seen this BJ Toys set, because either Peter gave me another or I grabbed one, out and about, but either way it got Blogged, but that means I can open one and inspect the two Matchbox-clone figures more closely another day!

 

A pull-back-and-go, slightly 'deform' T62 type with a whacky paint-job, possibly from a larger set, but could equally be an open-carton shelf-pick type of thing, you do still find them occasionally in general/discount stores or on market stalls?

 

I think we've seen these before in a set of four, but nice to be reminded than even in the modern derth of decent rack-toy war toys, there are still a few gems to be uncovered, and a Tiger and StuG (albeit with identical running gear) are a nice diversion.

 

Green-eyed monster! There is a plan, one day, for a decent overview of 'King Kong's; we have seen a few here over the years, but there's probably over a dozen in the pile,. This very-male one is particularly mentionable, being neither the common 'Rubber Jiggler' silicone or latex, nor the semi-rigid PVC, you might otherwise expect, but is actually a rather solid lump of polyethylene . . . "You could 'av someone's eye out with that!"

 

Impro Dinosaurs, I have a tub of these and have meant to Blog them, but I think I'm still waiting on the rarest moulding, or only got one as they were going back into storage (?), but no matter, there's plenty about them on the Wibbly Wobbly Way, and the duck-bill here is another of the less common sculpts I think?

 

Paint variations of Pterodactyl, I used to kind-of ignore them, but in the last year or so, particularly with the donations from Jon Attwood, and a few Charity Shop buys, there have been quite a few come in, with copies and variations like these, so there may be an overview-post in the Blog's future as they are almost more amazing than normal dinosaurs . . . the world had flying lizards bigger that fridges, or even family cars, which could swoop down and pierce your spine with a four, six or eight-foot beak!

 

Potato, Onion, Apple

Carrot, Cucumber, Aubergine-Brinjal-Zuccini

 

Blackberry, Apple, Pineapple

Two Bananas and an Orange

A pair of Apples and a Pear

 

These have been given several names over the years, now collectively known as 'Munch Bunch', they were also sold as 'Mr. Fruity', 'Fruit & Veg' etc. Pencil tops, there are several versions, variants, piracies and issues, with examples of several seen above, you sometimes found them with plug-in cowboy hats (which unethical sellers would/will happily use on swoppet figures), plug-in greenery, painted, integral greenery or no 'top knot' decoration, even some with small charm-loops, and as you can see above, larger and smaller versions.

They are another thing destined to get a proper in-depth treatment here one day, and of which, again, there is plenty to read about them, online already. I think we got ours one year in a Christmas stocking, maybe three each, and we called them Pineapple Pol (and his mates), but I think that may have come from Mum, and be referencing the famous musical, which was big when she was younger? Note, the pear has lost its [her?] legs.

They are always waving with one hand, with the other arm down, often wearing clown shoes, Cuban heels or Dutch clogs and always wearing gloves. Some are clearly female (long lashes!), and the Banana is always top-knot'less, unless he has a loop, due to his starting to peel! And once you have a big collection, there are a couple which are hard to name as being obvious fruits or vegetables!

 

The difference between an apple and a tomato is a moot-point, but the tomato tends to full roundness. And please note, there are millions of them out there, so they are mostly hideously overpriced on evilBay!

A bunch of bits, they all have their place, with tubs of assorted traffic cones, road signs, general signs, two boxes of tentage and etcetera! Likewise, the tree zone has been growing for about 47-years! I think the above fir is a cake decoration, and the gun is from early rack-toys.

I think we've now seen the set the middle chap is taken from, or it's in the queue, but a loose sample is always useful, and the set of mechanics may have been ID'd in a shelfie, or, again, be in the queue, all good stuff!

Vinyl! Two Smurfs, an astronaut, a Gormiti Egyptian (?) and a Kinder Santa, join a little lady in a princess suit, who I did find on that there Interweb the other day, but I've lost the reference, she's a current kid's TV character.

Post-Giant mouldings of Wild West foot figures, an Airfix kit figure of an RAF ground crew firefighter, who - unlike the refueling set figures - was not later issued in the soft polyethylene figure set, and two piggy-wiggies! The smaller from Hong Kong, the larger, an early Britains with a damaged tail.

A box of Airfix HO-OO, painted and with some damage, because everything was going to storage by that point, they will be cleaned and sorted another day, a little project on the back-burner! Thanks to Peter for all these, it's all grist to the mill, always something useful, or Blogable, and there's a bit of everything above!

L is for London Loot - 1 Rack Toys

I had a day 'up the Smoke', the other week, sort of annual thing, and managed to come home with a pile of stuff to short and photograph, for adding to the pile and sharing with you, this post is all the 'new' purchases.

I spotted this in a corner shop as we (Mr Evans of Plastic Warrior magazine and I) were passing, and while it's another BJ Toys one, it's not one I've seen round here, and I've checked out many convenience stores in three counties, around and about, so well pleased to find it. It is what it is, and won't be seen again until I tackle the sea life more seriously, at some point in the middle distance, or get BJ's A-Z Page entry done!

Peter took me to one of his favourite rack-toy haunts, and we'd almost given-up looking and were about to leave the shop, when we saw a bunch in a darker corner and this was one (SM Imports) which left with me, more of the thin-walled, hollow types, clipped together from two polyethylene parts, I love the treatment of the curls on the sheep in pink pad-printing!

 

The other find was this set, again larger sized animals, I never used to track down, but over the years the need to ID or annotate everything that might come in loose, has slowly extended the parameters of the collection, and, while for now it'll stay in the bag, I dare say at some point they'll come out and get a better photo-sesh! Branded to an SHC (Shing Hing Corp.?) in China and imported by LTC (London Top Choice).

 

I also visited the Party Shop at Clapham Junction, as always, and picked up a few pieces, among which were these, I think we've seen the make - Symex - before (from the same retail source), but I hope they are new assortments of what will be Iwako knock-offs!

 

These (Fiestas Guirca) were fun, and there were quite a selection, I chose the two simplest probably, to add to the insect pile, with earthworms and glow in the dark centipedes, while the Sainsbury's glow set obviously turned-up in some warehouse clear-out, and got wholesaled as clearance as they were both cheap, and very old stock which we have seen here before, each bag had different contents and not remembering what was in the previous find (charity shop I think?), I tried to get the one with the more eclectic mix!

 

Henbrandt, we may have seen them before, but if we have, I can debag one lot for proper shots and keep a set pristine. Also erasers; and into the mini-car oeuvre, we've already looked at today!

A is for Around and About!

I've managed to find a few rack-toys in the last few months, and here's a few, one as a shelfie, just for fun, the others now in the stash, but not opened yet, one day some of them may be, but really, when it comes to the animals or dinosaurs, it's more about being able to ID 'unknowns' at some future date, than any need to get them out and set them up or play with them!

 

The shelfie, I think this was The Works, but it might have been Asda? Imported by PS Imports of Belfast, NI (so probably Asda?), I thought they were worth a shot, as we saw these years ago, as a net-bagged set from New York, courtesy of Brian B, and also - the tug - as a miniature capsule-toy type, with possibly an archive shot, yet here they are again, a probably 1960's 'dimestore' design (or tool?) still turning-up as new, decades after they first came to market. It was a non-chain discount store in Aldershot.

Three bags of those larger, hollow, two-part soft, polyethylene/hybrid plastic animals, the dinosaurs look familiar, but I suspect not because we've seen them branded before, but there may have been some loose ones kicking around at some point, or the decoration is similar to others we've seen?

 

All three sets are imported by Kandy Toys, and are the modern equivalent of the old 'box scale' being more accurately 'unit price scale'! Found in a general/hardware or convenience store in Farnham of all places, I hope to visit the castle there in the next few days, and will check out the gift shop, but suspect (in conversation with Peter Evans the other day) it will all be Schleich/Papo or Westair/Ancestors?

While this is another BJ Toys set, found on my rounds, in a newsagent's over Fernhurst way, I think, a few weeks ago. Both solids, I thought they were rather good for what they are, with a good wing-area to body ratio making the dragon realistically airworthy, and the fantasy knight being toward the Schlich-Papo-ELC size at around 65/70mm, and maybe a copy of the same or similar - Wilkinson's/Wilco also had a nice range in the last few years of their existence.

T is for Two BJ's!

Hey, it was bound to happen one day! Nearly halfway through Rack Toy month and this may be as good as it gets! Driving round Surry Hills and Hampshire Villages (God's own real country), I get to visit a lot of the corner shops, where there is mostly disappointment these days!

 

Those which haven't been taken over by the big-six's 'local' outlets are either in smaller chains or have done supply deals with one of the big six (Tesco seems to be in a lot), and few have a toy rack, but when they do, it's either BJ or Red Deer, while they still exist in some form, Grossman (HGL) and Cornelius (Play Write) have changed radically since Covid struck, and Halsall (HTI) is mostly in larger stores now, doing bigger toys, like the Teamsters I keep shooting in TKMaxx and B&M.

As well as mostly being Red Deer or BJ, when you find rack toys, the only useful ones are either those already seen here at Small Scale World, or dinosaurs! So, these are two of them! Single bagged animals in that hollow, two-parts-glued synthetic rubber . . .

 

 

 . . . and a set of the hollow clip-together polyethylene types . We last saw these as a trio, in a yellowish/mustard base polymer, and only three animals to a set, with similar accessories.

 

Close-ups of the two larger models, both sets are out there now, there are about five sets of BJ Toys dinosaurs out there, including the set of mini monochromatic ones we've seen here before now, and others we may have seen here? And I've seen a third model in the green bags since purchasing these two.

T is for Two - Rack-Toy Dino'cards

I had occasion to stop at one of the few independent convenience-stores/corner shops the other evening (Lower Bourne, Farnham/Aldershot hinterlands - dodgy part of the world!), with the intention of grabbing a fizzy drink, and I came away with two BJ's . . . ooh'err missus!

The ones on the left look like a larger set we saw a few years ago, as a generic, stiff polyethylene hollows, pegged together (pegging and BJ's; it gets worse!), while the others look like those kids comic ones, but will probably turn out to be from a more common two-colour (plastic and one paint, sprayed) mini's set. They don't have the dotted-in eyes of the comic ones, either.

The trio is actually on a smaller card, and having had this stuff rather trashed (for understandable reasons) in the comment the other day, I now feel slightly guilty posting them, but a blog needs copy, preferably new copy, and while these posts aren't my finest hour, they are what they are, and if you like/collect Dinosaurs, these are both out there now.

The shop also had an 'army-man' set, but it was one of those sets with a rigid 4" figure, two 54mm'ish Matchbox copies and some travesty of an over-scaled, inaccurate Jeep or something, I mentally rejected it before I'd fully noted the contents!

T is for Two - Current Rack Toys

Another quickie, one of the things I like about RTM is that I clear 20/30-odd folders from the ever-growing pile in Picasa and this one's one of them! I think these have both come from Peter Evans, although I seem to have two examples of the boat one, so probably found one myself, it seems the same stores which carry the Red Deer rack-toys, often also carry the BJ Toys stuff as well, and we have one here in Fleet, but it doesn't always have the same stock as whichever store Peter finds his in.

We've been looking at these, both vehicles and figures in various packaging (Poundland, 99p Stores, Funrise &etc) pretty-much since the blog started, and always 'current', so this is just another iteration of product bought-in from multiple sources and packaged by a middle-man shipper, printed-up/configured for each contract/order - the VAB-type is new I think, and quite useful?

This is the one I have two of; better on the figures, not so hot on the accessories, but under the naff paint is something which could be painted-up better, and would/could serve a purpose in someone's wargaming army, I'm sure!

Close-up of the figures, better quality versions of the common 'new sculpts' (first seen from Ja-Ru or Ackerman in the 1990's?) and old Matchbox US Infantry sculpts, that's it, and thanks as always to Peter for spotting and sending the stuff to the Blog.

H is for How They Come In - Three from Peter

Peter Evans, roving reporter for PW, sent me three parcels over June-July of this year, a big one full of loose figures and two 'top-up's, one of figures the other rack toys, which were destined for RTM, but only one made it in time, so . . . another day!

Army men first! We've got the Andy Guard or similar GI's with their silver accessories (top left), and I think these are originals, I have various other somewhere including the common Hong Kong marked copies and we will do a post comparing them all one day.

Clockwise from them are some Airfix copies with slight changes to some of the poses, like the MTC marked ones we saw here a few years ago, but not quite the same. Below them is a handful of MPC smaller size, and I think I've said before that with colour variations and a decent pose-count there's always another to find!

With them is a Homie character I think, and he looks like he's not to me messed with, while the last shot is more of those Monogram copies, which I know I've pointed out have so many variations, I happily take all I can find, to get the 'whole' story on them!

More modern stuff top left and right, with an interesting Airfix original bottom left, he really is that bleached 8th Army colour! Gun is from the Matchbox Battle Kings K116 Artillery Truck set, while on the right another parachute-toy paratrooper figure and two piles of what I think are Ri-Toys originals.

Civilian stuff . . . and a Dalek! The two horses in the same pose (bottom left) look like scale-ups of the Hornby animal carrier, but I found them on Barney's site, they're Barratt, however I can't find the horse in the top left image, who I don't think I've seen before? He's Gem-like, if anything?

The oversized chap is . . . someone like New Ray, but not them, some hunting sets which came out a few years ago and were in Plastic Warrior magazine I think? While the chap next to him was a novelty a few Christmases ago, there should be two; 'racing', there were Nuns and Grannies in wheelchairs too!

A Hilco swan (?) and some interesting smaller animals make up this lot . . . and a Dalek!

Nice Dutch boy keyring, sans chain (just had a load of them arrive [Dutch keyrings], more in a future post!), old school Ork and a PVC wizard who's new to me, along with one of the larger 'small scale' copies of Airfix, possibly Majorette.

To the right; a ring-hand mechanic, sans tool and another PVC firefighter, both new to me, a generic GI and equally generic palm tree, below them is how they arrived, and you can see I didn't shoot everything (Tiger and Noah, fence and elephant . . . more, I suspect?), while the final frame shows kit-figure bits and a mini cracker coyboy.

A week or so after the above this little lot turned-up and we have some nice mini-dino's, the pile in the bottom corner are PVC figures from a BBC cartoon called Strange Hill High, which I've missed completely, but they will go quite well with the Homies and that odd one I still need to find-out more about!

The chap from Frozen (top, middle) is a lesser-make capsule toy, below him a more common Kinder, the small-scale policeman is new to me, as is the Phidal-looking Lava-man? And two stragglers from the German infantry seen above . . . all good stuff!

Then these arrived not long before Rack Toy Month, and I shot them all separately, but we only managed to see the Super Dino Army one - he says as if it's not his fault the other are still in the queue, but I can't be accused of slack in August! All three imported from Chinna by BJ Toys.

The truck with the rockets is similar to one we’ve seen before from the discount stores (the late 99p Stores or Poundland), but this one has working wheels, the previously seen version had them moulded-in. Interesting mix of Supreme and Matchbox piracies, while the left hand set also has Matchbox sculpts with other newer 'army men'.

Many thanks to Peter for all these, most will be revisited in future group-shots, thematic round-ups or on the A-Z Blogs - when I get them properly organised!