D is for Donation - Peter - Books, TV, Movie and Licensed

OK, so we're on to recognisable characters, although these days, they are coming so thick and fast, from so many streamers, with all the old favourites getting darker (Batman) or lighter (the dreadful Disney Pooh) makeovers, alternate universe versions, good and bad clones (Spider-Man, or should it be Spider-Men now?), indeed, the whole Marvel/DC thing is disappearing up its own arse, as Andy Warhol once predicted, albeit with choicer language!

 

Another Smiley (we've seen one or two recently), but this one has some age, and unlike the modern ones with their overprinted faces, his facial detail is sculpted-in. A Batman keyring, a bit of a caricature, this one, and a Gamorrean Guard from Hasbro's Star Wars Command.

 

This is an interesting one, on one level it's a teeny novelty rack-toy from China in a generic bag, but it's in the style and material of, and the same size as, the Phidal interactive book figure Duke Caboom (Captain Canuck knock-off from Toy Story), and the suspicion is it might be from the same source/factory, maybe a cancelled order, on clearance, and is compatible with the better-known figure? We can compare in a later post of this series!

Disney . . . for girls! And we have two from Frozen, Kristoff and Elsa, both capsule toys, one Kinder the other a lesser make I think, possibly both seen before? Bo Peep from Toy Story, a larger figurine from a source unknown to me, and a less definite 'fairy' like figure, almost certainly a Kinder something?

Some Japanese Anime/Manga thing, don't know anything about him, but nice figure.

Alternate Hulk in red? Actual Hulk from Phidal, we saw another recently, but they are very different shades of green, a Hotwheels figure from Mattel, shades of General Grivous in him, a damaged LB knock-off in 50mm (in the wrong post!) and a stamper;

 

I searched 'yellow suit' and 'horns' for both Marvel and DC, and couldn't find anything looking like him, although I knew several of the new characters have a similar look, then I remembered the flyer from the Fortnite post, and there he was, top left in the 'legendary' section, so a Fortnite character.

 

Current, or very recent Kinder, in two separate lots from Peter here, and interesting as they seem to be copies (fully licensed, the Playmobil logo is all over the packaging) of the children from that toy line, but with clip-together waists, to get them into the eggs. DC Superheroes, they have all the better ones! And, I guess, you add them to your Playmobil tub, as children dressing-up as DC characters? No accessories, but the hands are full-size for standard Playmobil stuff, and - with these - there's already a lot of value packed into the standard-priced eggs.

 

No idea on the Superman, the diver is also in the wrong group-shot, but hey, there he is, definitely to be further sorted (he's probably still in a bag with the other three!) a modern stretchy-smiley, with the over-printed face and a Homer Simpson of the size of, but not from the Monopoly set, so maybe a lesser capsule toy egg issuer like Zàini - LZ or Maraja, like the Kristoff from Frozen above?

 

I suspect these are from a kid's comic or magazine/periodical, they are that two-halves-of-substantial-polystyrene, glued together, which you see with a lot of the cover-presents, we've seen Clangers, Peter Rabbit and Octonauts here so far, this is the Fat Controler from Thomas the Tank Engine I think, and clearly two different issues, one realistically finished, one all in silver?

Super-deforms, I recognise a couple of the recent Marvel Spider-People, don't know the other two. They might be from a blind-bag set Brian Berke sent images off, but I can't find them on the Blog, and I can't find them in the ever-growing Picasa queue, so possibly badly tagged, however, the search did reveal how much of this blind-bag stuff is out there, and how much we've seen, one way or another!

 

Two more, not much idea on the issuers, I think Chewy may be Kinder, the sucker Captain America is the first licensed figure of the type I've seen, but there is a growing bag of the generic cartoonish sucker 'monsters', in the style of Shopkins, Moshlings, Smashers, Ooshies or Superzings, from which he's taken!
 

On the left another superhero I think, but I don't recognise him or his line/make, then a Barbie, which looks Kinder, but is a whole figure and wouldn't fit in an egg, so some other cheap bagged, capsule or rack-toy line? Disney dwarf, and another Fortnite stamper, easier to ID, as most of the female characters seem to have those armoured knee-pads!

 

Thanks again to Peter for saving all this for the blog, quite an eclectic mix!

R is for Rack Toy Round-Up - North America - Three is Supernumerary

More rack toy shelfies from Brian Berke, he found all these in Dollar Tree I think, and all figural, with 'Action', stretchy and 'Solid' types to suit most tastes!

 

Wall Walkers, unusual, in being solid, swivel-waist figures, with the sticky 'walking' compound attached as blobs to hands and feet, rather than the more usual form of an all-sticky figurine!

 

Although not a bendy, this guy looks like a perfect foil for the stretchy astronaut we saw a couple of months ago from Keycraft!

 

Generics? Their names all begin with 'M'!

 

Another of the Power Ranger's we saw the black one of, in a previous post from Brian.

 

Disney!

 

I'm not sure how this would work as a Yo-Yo, and I've tried to avoid PJ Masks and Paw Patrol here, but the longer they remain popular characters, the more likely they are to creep into the content from time to time! And I don't know anything about them - are they some male version of Power-Puff Girls?

 

This would find a place in the collection; appears to be a sculptural solid? There's a lot of adults buying toys these days, more for lifestyle signalling/decoration, than pure collecting, and this sort of thing is very much aimed at them, for a mantle or windowsill, or a display cabinet in the hall Monster High!

 

Three-inch, four-inch? Look out GI Joe's, Barbie is looking for a husband and she has expensive tastes!

 

Peppa . . . removed from Douyin (China) due to her association with 'gangster' subcultures and the creation of subversive memes!

 

Many thanks to Brian for all these, there's more to come, probably two more posts, so nicely inside Rack Toy Month, while I think the Gygax Monsters will slide into September! 

L is for Lots of London Loot - Three IS a Few!

The other half of Peter's August donation, and another eclectic collection of odds and ends, figural and vehicular, structural and peculiar, aqueous and funicular! I know, I shouldn't be allowed!

This was rather ironic, as I'd had one, we may even have seen it here at Small Scale World, if we did I probably mentioned it was incomplete but still eminently playable-with, and would go back to Charity (from whence it came), and which it did . . . now, here's a fully parade-ready example which can go in the collection!

I can't remember if someone ID'd it, or if it's a generic from a big-box action figure play set of the sort you find piled-high in Smyths or B&M, but it's a nice model in a sort of interim M38/Wrangler style, which may be aiming for one of those 1970's Toyota designs?

 

Kinder Barbies, I have had several sets groups of these come in now, more from Peter, some from Charity, probably a couple from Chris, and Brian Carrick may have given me a handful too, the trouble with them is that while, at first glance, the bases look the same, they are all slightly different with specific feet/shoe holes or holds, depending.

And, as you can see, I managed to match-up two before I gave up, not because it was that hard, but because I'd already failed spectacularly to match up a larger sample, last time we looked at them! When they are all together, I'll sit down, make the effort and get them up here, pristine!

 

The earlier sets (covered in Plastic Warrior magazine at the time), had figure specific bases if I recall correctly (they're all in storage again), each base had two figures, or was reused in the series two or something, but there have now been four or five series', and we'll look at them all in an overview one day, with the similar Superhero sets.

Incomplete, but a useful sample, it's one half of an O-gauge level crossing, in tin-plate and die-cast, I don't think it's 'Binns Road' (Hornby), and it doesn't look like Crescent (the other make I'm a bit familiar with, so maybe someone like Chad Valley, or 'Foreign'? I stand to be educated on this one, by someone who actually knows?

A handful of the Supreme/SP Toys 'Silver Knights' a slowly growing sample, which when they are all brought together will have most of the elements now, I think, and hopefully enough weapons and shields to equip that sample properly!

We've seen WOW Eggs before, I think, and there is a mini-season of capsule toy updates in the medium-queue, but I thought a near 54mm (I don't think you count the tail beyond where the feet should be?!!), articulated-waist Mermaid was a bit of fun!

I had a quick root-through the donation box while still at Peter's, but having a train to catch, when I saw these, and realised what they were, just said to Peter, "Ooh, mail-away boxes, I'll save these, to open as a surprise when I get home", which I did!

Rather exquisite, if historically anachronistic, or unrealistic (?) N-gauge train, branded to Nabisco (now Nestle/Kraft)'s Shredded Wheat! Obviously I don't have sections of powered, N-gauge track lying around here, so I can't test it, but I don't need it, as the locomotive is weighted in the engine-compartment, but unpowered. Issued in 1989, the loco' and coaches were manufactured by Graham Farish (Grafar/GF), and the two wagons are different, with one having a guards-compartment.

 

Couple of hours later - "Have you come across a good transport marketing gimmick?" - Well? Have you, readers! Hee-hee, you can almost hear his brain whirling! Except he clearly hasn't got one, always following, never leading!

 

To enhance the above, and the tray of mini/micro-railway samples, were these floor-runners from Dinky, I well remember Mum trying, with the blue Mallard from this set (or was it Matchbox?), to take the wheels off damaged Lone Star Treble-O stock, in order to get it to run on that track!

 

I seem to remember, as a small boy, some of the underground trains still having that crescent-corridor join, to help them go round corners, before someone worked out that distancing them from each other, like surface trains, was easier! But that may be a false memory and I stand to be corrected on that, too!

 

An incomplete, probably Kinder moped and a wooden erzgebirge station building, round-off the odds in this donation.

 

While this could have been kept for Rack Toy Month, but I'm not minded to look that far ahead, given the fluidity of my life at the moment! Many Thanks to Peter, as always, for all this grist to the twin mills of sample-stash and Blog!

P is for Peter's Plunder - Highlights 1

As I mentioned the other day, I don't tend to post-credit when geldt has crossed palms, but first, I know who gave me the contents of the bag, and second, I know they were cheapies, so we'll look at the highlights!

 

A couple of robo-dino-bots, similar to the pair of gift shop dragons carried by several branding's a few years (couple of decades?) ago, but still around, with the same black undercoat, heavy silver over-brushing and red eyes!

There's a post on these coming soon'ish I think, touristy horses, I spent years waiting for riders to appear, but it seems there weren't any, despite the Western/American saddlery?

 

Three American natives from Jean, the prone one is one of the slightly harder to find poses, but they are as common as Airfix readymades, on the continent, so it's all a bit relative!

 

Very strange manga/anime things with slightly animalistic faces, pre-pubescent teen bodies, angels wings, and a look of mischief about them! Possibly Wild Vibes Zombaes Forever dolls (some Netflix thing), but not the 8cm articulated action figures Google reveals, rather 54/60mm PVC solids - an earlier/capsule-toy line?

 

A bit infant'y, and probably going-on to charity, but they are fun if you like all this 'deforms' stuff, and marked-up to K&M/Wild Republic, so - box ticked! And the horses are less cartoony and could prove useful for spare mounts?

 

Kinder's Disney Fairies, I tried to get them to perform for the camera, but the petals kept falling out, or the fairies fell over, so, well, you get the idea, a similar set of 'Flower Fairies' has been issued recently as well!
 

Space! The lenticular goldfish-bowl-face is a new [to the collection] colour, the orange guy is Safari, I think the green one might be Ben Ten (and was another one who didn't want to stand up!), while the silver guy is an MPC copy, and the other two are mini-action figures from Hasbro, one a Star Wars 'Clone War' figure, the other possibly a GI Joe or something?

 

Loving the quirkiness of these, semi-flat, polyethylene, 'monochromatic' dinosaurs, what's not to like? The bases have channels in them which suggest they may attach to something else, but similar channels have been seen in other figures over the years (game playing pieces, IHC firefighters), so there may be a technical reason behind it.

 

More Kinder, and another fail to get a better display shot, but they are from several Barbie series I think, and as spares/to-be-sorted are a useful addition to my smaller sample. Oddly, several of them have pink knickers! But it's probably not that odd to a child and I'm just channelling the inherited residues of Edwardian uptightedness in the matter?

 

More Kinder (or Phidal in the case of the little blonde) capsule-type stuff.

More space! Seven of the LB (for Lik Be, of course!) astronauts, in their soft polyethylene iteration, probably the best surviving of the small scale versions, and posed with the Combex pencil sharpener. I've since learned there is a carpet-wheel version of the novelty, marked only 'B - 5 2 0'.