T is for Two - Pool Party!

I went back to B&M to try and get another set, so balance up the figures a bit, and they were sold-out in two stores! But I found these beach-toys, and shelfied one while buying the other!

 

Fun for kids, but the rubber boat would be useful for garden gamers. I suspect I bought these (or something very similar) a few years ago, which was why I only shelfied them, that and the rather too chunky, white-button motors!

 

De-carded now, so I can't retake it, I'm struggling with the settings on a new camera!

 

They are actually soft polymer (like a dense PVC), and totally sealed units so when the stack of three watch-batteries run out, there'll be no more lights, and the shock of them hitting the water presumably sets them off, I didn't work it out until I dropped one! It's the same tech' as all these flashing kids' shoes and suchlike!

 

B&M, now, three-quid each!

D is for Duracell Durabeam

Another in the occasional series of nostalgic posts, and a funny one as I found the add' while scanning other stuff from the colour supplements going to recycling, when clearing the house out, back in '22, and doing so while sitting on the end of my bed nearest the scanner, with the actual torch, still working (not switched-on!), on the mantle-shelf behind, less than an arms reach away!

I don't remember many adverts for torches when I was a kid, this would have been from 1982, or thereabouts, I can't remember the date now, but there's chapter and verse on them, here. I do vaguely remember their being a larger one, but this little one was the classic, most UK homes in the 1980's had one tucked away somewhere!

 

The iconic black/yellow-highlighted design launched a thousand copycats and a - continuing - generation of like-designed Duracell's, with several of these being so-branded, the rubber one lying on the left, obviously, but a couple of the others, too, I think, they've gone off to storage with everything else! I think the one with a grey seal is none-Duracell, and the squared-end one is an Eveready?

 

And, believe me, this is about a third of the torches I've ended-up with, having now, the accrued torches of two lifetimes, my late Mother's and mine! All torches used to become temperamental, either because the tensioned copper or brass conductor plate/s at the switch, or between batteries would lose their springiness and not make good connections, or because acid-damage, from an old, dead-battery would kill the conductivity altogether!

I think my Durabeam (centre) was a Christmas stocking present, and one of the last crimbo-stockings I ever got, probably that 1982 xmas? And it still works, with quite a decent light, it has facilitated many Blog Posts, finding stuff in the attic!

 

Now, I have two pen torches, both LED, both still only two AA-batteries (same as the Durabeam), one a mini Maglite (about 2.5 inches long) which I keep in my driver's bag to find door numbers from the comfort of my cab, the other a cheapo' lookie-likie which I keep in the car, mostly to help fill my vape, or change its battery in dark lay-byes! And either of them produce a better light than all the above would, if used together!

Oh, and Energiser are a bunch of phuqing wankers! My own personal opinion, of course!

Z is for Ziggurat!

Well, I wouldn't have bored you will my travails over the last few days, you don't want to tip your 'eemies' off, but suffice to say a cancer scare has been downgraded to a 'phew', with a slightly ominous "Get it checked if it doesn't go away" caveat. Anyway, to celebrate my lighter mood this evening, here's one of the odder things in the kit catalogues of the 1960's, Imai's M2000T SF Ziggurat, is it a plane . . . yes! Is it a tank . . . yes, is it a SAM-missile T.E.L., yes! Is it goddamned-barking-mad? You betcha!

I've actually been looking for it for several years, but I thought it was in one of the UPC catalogues and when I couldn't find it there, I was stumped, but it just turned-up in a smaller AHM one!

 

It seems to be a mash-up of Imai's Scud-A ('Missile tank BB3' tracks and road-wheels), some Thunderbirds elements and their own fictional SAM 5 rocket launcher parts, so probably around 1:24th scale . . . 'ish! Relatively clip-together, and you can have one for less than 2,000-quid;

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/404657806927

 

I don't normally like linking to evilBay stuff, as it doesn't tend to hang-around long, after it's sold, these days, but I think this may remain a hot-link for some time, unless there's an idiot out there keen to be parted from his money! And $4.98, would be the best part $45 today, a lot of money?

H is for Hexbug . . . Not? Junkbots

These are a real oddity, marked-up to Hexbug, but not taking Hexbug's as motive power, or for added play-value, so I can only guess, they were another 'line' in the Hexbug 'range', designed to tie-in with the declared STEM aims of Innovation First International for their Hexbug branding?

 

Remaindered or 'on clearance' at TKMaxx last Christmas (2022/3), these were back in TKMaxx again this Christmas , just gone, with different packaging (I didn't make another purchase), suggesting they had been tried again somewhere, or more stock had been found/located in the intervening 12-months, I don't know?

 

What I do know, is I can illustrate/testify to several reasons why they might have failed, and this is very-much in the we-buy-this-shit-so-you-don't-have-to department, rather than any advertisement to rush out and find some?

 

Immediate problems are presented by the ripped elastic band, fashioned as a chain and padlock, the padlock is both non-functional and depicted as open! The container is modelled to represent a North American dumpster, although such flat-top designs are getting as common as the roll-lid ones over here now . . . we will go to our extinction homogeneously!

 

One of the models had two accessory bags for small parts, joined with hairs of extruded plastic, from some production problem, and with several smaller pieces loose in the box? 

 

A [sealed, so no replacing the-] battery-operated light unit was included with one, which was not part of the model, not found on the instruction, but clearly a 'spare' for use in the line? While fit was poor on a fair number of the component's link-portions, and the two very small pieces above (one from each of the two I purchased) were so badly manufactured (you can see the rough finish of the orange 'flower' clearly) they wouldn't locate in the designated position.

However, with perseverance I did manage to produce the two, almost to the instructions, without breaking anything, although a couple of pieces did get damaged/bent in the task, and wouldn't survive too many more constructions/dismantling?

 

Any interactivity/swapability between the two was limited, due to the various joins/ball-sockets/studs being different diameters/dimensions, and/or, therefore, location specific. As you can see, I got (blind boxes) a Dino-bot and a Seal/Sea Lion-bot!

 

Final criticism - I would say the colour-palate was/is pretty uninspiring, without being actually stressed/weathered to represent junk?

 

So, one can see that this line seems to have been half-thought, half-executed and then neither properly supported, nor improved? Glaring errors like poor fit, were never corrected, and the fact that toys dated 2020, were remaindered so soon, is not a mystery.

 

What is a mystery (to me) is why were these 'Series 2', was a 'Series 1' better? And was it a 'Series 3' which I didn't even look-at properly, a few weeks ago, which was being cleared a year later, and which are probably still in some TKMaxx's, if you want to try them for yourselves - I really wouldn't recommend it?

 

And, if the four or five-quid I paid in TKMaxx, was a clearance price, they were surely overpriced for blind-box/capsule novelties in the first place? I am reminded of the - much better executed - Horrible History figures and their short life, the powers that be (the board, the PR Company/ies, the marketer/s), don't care if they are stuffing landfill with this shite, so long as they sell enough 'units' first.

 

I love the space station, before I've even had a proper looks at it, and the insects look very good, and fun, but this is unadulterated, ephemeral, opportunistic shite, and would disappoint, from a Christmas stocking, damaging the brand, no wonder they sold their toy division to Spin Master!

H is for Hexbug Space!

So the reason I knew about Hexbug (previous post), to spot them at the Toy Fair, in a way that without, I would normally have walked straight past them, zoning them out as multicoloured plastic shite - how many other useful things have we missed that way, like looking for your key by doing 'Radar' eyes on the hall and somehow failing to register them on their hook by the door! . . .

 

. . . is - I digressed a bit there - because a few months earlier I had found a nice little spaceship in a Charity Shop's 50p bin, and taken it home to ask the wise coves of Brain Heiler's Faceplant group if anyone knew what it was and/or who made it.

 

The turret was a plug in and there was clearly room for more.

 

 Amelia A. Baranet answered the call not only with an ID but also with a link to the Hexbug Nano Space Cosmic Command Habitat review, which seems to have been deleted, a small chat ensued and it turned out several 'Stallions' had them, or their kid's did, and loved them, but I had already gone-off to evilBay, where I found one going cheap!

 

 

 

Turns-out, all the blue and orange bits are interchangeable with the mounting points of the buildings, vehicles and 'ship'. While, you get two Hexbugs, in way cooler colours than the everyday ones we looked at in the previous post. It's all a bit Lego or Tente, but without the studs ruining the lines of the finished constructions.

 

There are other sets, and because this one then went straight to storage (autumn of '21), we will have a box opening post in a year or two, perhaps when the existing Internet images have died-down a bit, but for now, there's tons out there if you look, and I think it'll go well with the little 20mm'ish Giant spacemen and bug-eyed Aliens?

H is for Hexbug!

Just a quickie before I go to work, a post from 2022's Toy Fair, which clearly I haven't got out in a timely manner, because it really doesn't matter! I won't be going this year at all, although I think it was last week anyway, so I didn't go this year!

Hexbug and Hexbug Nano (or Nano Hexbug) are brands of Spin Master, bought by them with all properties this time last year, from Innovation First International, who continue to trade with other non-toy brands, and which has, at its core, small battery-operated 'robotics' which move about and provide motive power for various lines, aimed both at STEM for younger kids, more generl fun toys, and pet novelties.

I'd become aware of them a year or so earlier, following a charity-shop purchase (more in a subsequent post), so was interested to see them at the show, but as you can see, little to interest Loyal (or casual) Readers, beyond the insect carcases being quite realistic as stand-alone models, without their Hexbug 'innards'.

Catalogue imagery, well, more of a trade 'flyer' really!

Packaging of the basic Hexbug units, in one's or sixes.

The insects

As you can see they are very good, and follow real life patterns of 'wee bestie'

Larger arthropods, and a sort of gecko-dragon thing!

Insect packaging also comes in singles or multiples

Cat toys!

K is for ♪♫♫♪ Keep on Rocking in the Free World . . . ♪♪♫♪

From the nostalgia files comes . . . 

 

. . . the smallest transistor radio of it's age, Japanese of course!

 

Believed to date from 1966 ('ish) and, while badged to Sharp Electonics, possibly have been made in the subsidiary Hayakawa Electric Co.Ltd. plant? It takes one AA-battery along the bottom, to leave room for all seven transistors! Yours for thirty-quid on feebleBay if you can get any sound out of it, I can get static out of this, so it's still alive, but I'm not sure if it's got it's hearing-aid switched-on!

 

This stuff used to be on Tommorrow's World, now it's yesterday's gimmick.

B is for Battling Micro Tank . . . No 'S'

Because to get the advertised/titled Battling Micro Tanks, you need to get at least two sets, although there are three tanks to find! I found this in 2021, although it's copyrighted 2000, to a Teamforce Co. of the UK, and the contents will be all-Chinese.

 

A Sherman and Tiger still to be found, all sharing the same running-gear, but the Sherman having outer flats to represent the distinctive suspension system of the M4, but with only two per side it looks like a Stuart/Honey with ideas above its station!

The Mk. V Panther of this set. It's a tad deformed too, but holds the look of the real one reasonably well, just a little too wide for its length. They could have hidden the power button a little better, by placing it in the cupola?

 

The figures, around 28mm, are Airfix copies and resemble the ones being issued with Majorette military sets around the same time, with heavy bases, but new poses I think, however they could both be from the same subcontractor? Similar figures were issued by Skylark a few years ago, but they were very poor quality copies-of-copies.

The trees are also a bit Airfix'y - from the Zoo play set?

The batteries have all gone 'acid burst' and should probably be discarded, but they are pretty safe in their tray and I think I left them for the time being? Quite unusual to find 'Batteries Included'!

The radio-control unit is disguised as a grenade, which brings memories of Galoob's line of Secret Army Supplies!

A is for The Avengers . . .

. . . the proper ones, not the silly American comic ones! Although I was a New Avengers chap, myself; we didn't have much telly when we were kids (no loss - I avoid it by choice now), so I tended to catch Purdy and Co., later on, around friends houses, or after we got a rather smart (for its day) Bush colour TV as we hit teenage-hood.

Tom Clague sent me this a few weeks ago and I totally forgot it despite getting excited at the time and taking screen caps (below) from the clip (above), but it is fascinating for having the rare'ish Airfix 1st version Paratroops in 1:32nd scale, also obvious is the Marx battery-operated tank, Britains pack-gun and 25lbr's, Deetail (?) and Herald infantry.

Spot the conversion!

Marx

 

Deetail mortar team or Swoppet?

 

Herald with Naval Gun? 

I've also added the relevant screen-capcha and the clip to the relevant page for that Airfix set. Thanks Tom, brilliant!

 

* *****     ***     *****     *  **  *     *****     ***     ***** *

Half an hour later - I posted this elsewhere, FOR FUN, highlighting the Airfix para's and Marx tank, because the Airfix are an uncommon find, and most British kids (and I mean MOST) had that tank, or the sand, blue or grey versions, or some Hong Kong knock-off of it, back in the day - only for some pointless waste of oxygen to point out that most of the figures were Herald! Well; no shit Sherlock! Obviously, I didn't know I had to cover my arse to the Nth degree, by listing the obvious stuff; but here goes nothing . . . 

The mortar team looks to be Britains Deetail in the fuzzy screen-cap', but the video should be too early for such a scenario, so it must be the Swoppet one, which also had quite a bright-green base but not as square as it looks in the shot? Which means there's probably a few other Swoppets on the table with the Herald Khaki Infantry?

 

The Marx tank had a fixed-turret but is missing it's plug-in barrel. There is at least one Britains Pack-Howitzer, which - again due to the dates - is probably the earlier fully-folding one (a later version had fixed legs - less breakages, less irate parents on the 'phone!), along with three or more 25lbr's and a late model of Britains' Naval Gun (which in one form or another had been in their catalogues since the 1930's) which kills the Brigadier.

There were also several plastic-looking vehicles, a fly-wheel motor tank he directs at the mountain, a (Pull-back motor?) jeep and possibly an armored-car at one point (also pull-back power?) which are probably all Hong Kong, possibly Jimson, Telsalda or larger Blue Box types.

 

I think the board is painted Foamex^TM, but it could be a coated particle board, with the lines applied with Lettraset Lettraline or possibly Unipart vinyl pin-striping, but I'm just not sure!

If I've missed anything else, I really don't care, perhaps one of the fastidiously humorless, tediously fuckwitted of this parish can let us know . . . TJF? I honestly thought he'd managed a Christmas without having a pop, but he just can't stop himself!

T is for Two - Novelty Vehicular Thingies!

Just a quickie, but as I was sorting stuff to put back into storage I was shooting all sorts of old friends and things I'd forgotten I had, and batch throwing them on Picasa against the possibility of being stuck somewhere in the near future, possibly for months, house-hunting, while everything is in the said storage; these are two of the things I'd totally forgotten being the owner of, and, while 'only' novelties, they are both quite cool from a toy soldier perspective!

We get used to seeing the Award, Grace or Star branded wagons - copied from European originals, typically Timpo or Britains - on feebleBay from time to time, but how about a money-box!

Imported by a D.A.S. of London in an otherwise un-branded/generic packaging. I think this is (or was) quite recent, from the CE mark; 1980's or 90's maybe, I also suspect it was a charity-shop purchase, but can't actually remember where it came from or when, one of those last Birmingham shows, 2011?

She looks a tad Britains in origin, he . . . Elastolin medieval? The whole wagon (with figures) is in hard polystyrene with 'propylene wheels and horses and an 'ethylene plug to release the savings, hopefully to buy another wagon!

It would benefit from a 'paint down' from the current scheme of psychedelic puke! Obviously, painted or not, it's wholly compatible with 50-60mm war gaming or figure collections which is why it's in mine!

While this is more geared toward H0 or 00-compatible war-gaming collections, for which a coat of grey or olive-green would be the minimum requirement! No branding at all beyond the CF stock code prefix, it's a fun thing with two forms of power/locomotion.

Verging on 'shelf' or 'big-box' toy rather than rack-toy, it would have been rack toy budgeted I suspect and it's possibly a bit earlier than the wagon above - late 1970's? It may - of course - have been an overpriced element of the Hoverspeed gift-shop/duty-free exercise? I well remember the piles of Airfix ferry models at the Purser's window of the Enterprise Spirit class ferries we used to get - now a much sought-after kit!

A pair of batteries in the body drive a vibrating mechanism ("Oh Matron!") which causes the brushes to move the hovercraft (Saunders-Roe SR-N4 Mountbatten Class) across smooth or flat surfaces, while a secondary single battery-motor of a pretty standard slot-on design (dozens of toys came with them when I was a kid) will drive it round the local pond, boating lake or bath!

That's it, a couple of boxed-items, box-ticked!

F is for Follow-up - G is for Great Wall

Brain Berke eMailed these to me just as the Corvid-19 crisis began to bite, so it's a bit of a late follow-up, but as a foil to the on/off, point-and-go battery-operated Walker Bulldog I'd found in Waterstone's, he sent this fully remote-control little beauty from across the pond.

Posed with the Airfix Cromwell, it's a Tiger I with rather whacky colouring and markings, but nothing a home paint-job wouldn't put right, and it comes with a 'new' small scale figure . . . looking a lot like the old Fujimi or Esci side-cap bedecked tank-commander, but there's not a lot a sculptor can do with a torso, in a turret! It's lost its lid as well?

Manufactured by Great Wall Toys, the rear of the carrier-box has a rather disconcerting mirror, which is obviously designed to display the details of both the front and the back of the tank at the same time, but it also distorts the whole thing like a stretched super-deform!

It's a long time since I followed AFV's in any depth but I think it's an early/mid variant? I don't get why so much effort goes into such an unrealistic camouflage, and a lot of effort has gone into it; it's a four-colour, approximately 55-15-15-15% scheme, well thought-out as well . . . maybe it's a current Chinese military patten?

But think of it on the drive, hunting-down the straight-line Walker Bulldog . . . one sided it would be, but great-fun!

T is for Tank in a Tin

"It does exactly what it says on the tin!"

Bit of an investment this one, as it was £11.99! I passed on it at Christmas for reasons of price against available budget, but the other day A) I had a spare tenner to fritter away on a tank in a tin, or even a tank not in a tin and B) people had broken the seal on a couple of the aforementioned tank tins, so the contents (light-feeling and anonymous back in December) were open to a quick inspection, and I would then have been failing - both this and the Airfixfigs Blogs - had I turned-away again!

There you go . . . a tin, with a tank; a tank in a tin, there's really no doubt about the matter! The tank wrapped in a bubble-sock and the figures in a little stash-bag! All in a tin.

The customer information panel on the base is a firmly glued card sheet, almost certainly over the printed date of a partner importer elsewhere or the factory  and the Funtime Gifts branding doesn't seem to match what may be that partner/originating-factory's logo with seems to be an 'M' but might be an MW cypher?

The tank (from the tin it's come in) is described as a M41 Walker Bulldog and apart from a road-wheel missing in each side seems to be a reasonable model of one in a slightly over-1:72nd scale, maybe closer to 1:70th or even 1:64?

It comes with 12 copies of the Airfix '2nd version' US Marines, which, through the bag, in the store (Waterstone's have them at the moment) looked as if they were Hornby-supplied, but which upon unpacking were revealed to be good-quality piracies; four each of three poses, manufactured in a PVC-like polymer with some of the properties of a polyethylene.

Further to previous posts, you can see here that a skilled copyist has ensured the pantograph produced figures of exactly the same size, but some detail has been lost by the vibration of the cutting-head/burr-drill which has not be re-etched in afterward (by an engraver/finisher), the Tank in a Tin figure is on the right in both shots.

In the powering-up I encountered a few problems which those of you chaffing to rush out and buy one of your-own Tank in a Tin's need to be aware of;

The AAA (Triple-A) battery is NOT supplied and will need to be sourced. When you remove the screws and split the model, you will find that the middle gear in the drive-chain (A) pops out of it's housing, slip it back in by all means, but don't try tightening the motor-housing screws (C) (as I did - it'll just hold everything too tightly), because the spigots (B) actually hold the gear-shaft in place during normal operation!

Also the PVC glue used to seal the track-join will have filled a few of the sprocket-tooth holes in the tracks, you may wish to open them-up again with a hot needle. For similar reasons (of more realistic running) the sprooket-teeth may need a bit of flash removed and some of the wheels have mould-gate (incorrectly; 'sprue') residue which can be trimmed off.

Finally; if you've not made a note of it before or during the above 'base-workshop' phase, the track-pad 'arrows' point to where the tank is going above the wheels and where it's been below the wheels (yellow arrows) when you need to refit them.

It's a nice little runner - albeit in one direction only - and I'll try to do a video at some point - when the weather improves! The three-point drive-chain reducing the speed to a decent 'scale' speed - it's runs-over the infantry in a satisfyingly slow fashion!

I love a bit of detective work, and I love a bit of a challenge, so when I thought I recognised the silhouetted figures on the side of the tin I had to try and reproduce them!

They were the SoldierWW2 font (which worked so poorly on last year's PW Show announcement - only three months 'till the next one!) I've posted a link to before , but most of them had been reversed (all but the two underlined ones - both 'duplicates'), so I had to type them into a word document, colour the page appropriately, take screencapchas, put the .jpg's back into the word document as picture-elements, flip/reverse them, screencap' again and remove the two which had to be the right way round and add them as actual font-element/additional over-text's to the picture, and then save!

I think they are older Men At Arms images and might be . . .

m - French or Polish?

C - French

] - German

3 - British Paratrooper (not reversed)

u - Japanese or Russian? (with anti-tank rifle)

e  - Japanese in cap

3 - British Paratrooper

[ - German Paratrooper

o - US Marine?

8 - US GI?

= - US Marine or GI!

e  - Japanese in cap (not reversed)

So that was that half-sorted! The silhouette tank drawn next to them, which the two groups are following round the sides of the tin (with a tank in) is a Soviet T54/55!

This is probably about twice the size (around 1:35th), coming out of Japan and is the old Masudaya (Modern Toys) version of what is - I think - another M41 Walker Bulldog, (not an 'M-12'!) also battery-operated and also reduced to four road-wheels. Thanks to Jan Yarzembowski for the image.