B is for Blow Job!

No! You can't even begin to pretend, you don't think it wasn't going to happen one day, because you know it was, Blow Job has been inevitable, from the founding of the blog! I found this rather interesting item at Sandown Park a month ago, and here it is for Loyal Readers to enjoy!

 

House Martin's eponymous blow-football game, 'Blow Football', our draughs set was by House Martin, when we were kids, and I seem to recall them providing games for newsagents or corner-shops, more than the dedicated toys shops or department stores (who's toy departments were always small, outside the 4th quarter), but that might be a personal memory/conclusion, rather than the truth of the situation.

 

 

The interest being these two, not only are they better-quality sculpts of the commonly Hong Kong sports set, with the 'five-ring' circus logo of the Olympic movement, but the better quality suggests a better quality set of all of them, somewhere, were they premiums at one point, before Hong Kong got their hands on them?

 

There's a tube missing if each player is to have one, and it won't be easy to replace, exactly, without a second set of the same game, but you never know, and maybe it's already in the loose odd's Blow Football section, of the stash?

 

The obvious difference between this set and others with figures (not all Blow Football games have figures), is that there is no handle or means /instructions for affixing them to such, so either you hold and move 'the goalkeepers' with the other hand, or just place them in from of the goal, and hope they stop some shots? 

My memories are that after a while, saliva tended to come out of the end of the tubes, and I'd imagine Blow Football has become a bit persona non grata, in these post-covid times? I should add, that I thought I'd posted more of these, back in the early days of the Blog, I certainly have several, so we will have to have a better look another day, as I can't find them on the blog now? There should be a couple of Merit versions, a Gibson and/or Spears, and a couple of more modern/generic ones?

H is for How They Come In - December 2020 - II Chris - Civilian Life

Civi's this time, and Chris's parcels always have a fair few as I don't think he collects them much - like many of you (?) - and because there are many, many civilian figures out there as supporting actors in other dramas like Christmas, Easter and Halloween, and as added-value in die-cast sets, model kits, board games and novelty toys.

Starting with the sports figures and we have an unpainted version of the 'kicker', sans kick, as a kit, I believe these were handled by Palitoy at one point, but were also a game-piece and possibly a cereal premium? To his right are two more of the early Hong Kong 'styrene footballers, both tatty but they add to the size of the sample.

The diver is also damaged, she will be matched to the correct sample by plastic colour and/or size (I suspect she goes with the other two - bottom right!), as there are about 12 versions of these (in the smaller sizes). A soft PVC copy of Britains cyclist is next, with a cake-dec' footballer next to him.

The two blow-football figures are from different sources and I'm building ['putting together'!] a folder of evilBay images of blow-football games, just to ID the dozen or so I now have in ones or twos - along with a few full sets myself, so I can do an ID parade on them all one day.

Finally a duck-hunter who is - I think - stolen from someone like New Ray, by someone like Pioneer! And similar to the old Matchbox pose!

Infants and cakes! The upper shot are a few loose items from Lik Be (LB, formally LP!), and I have a couple of sets from this range which I must Blog at some point. Their fence is quite distinct with its 'outriggers' and the barn would make excellent 'old school' war-gaming scenery.

Below is a bunch of mixed cake decorations, some probably from Cullpitts, some maybe from Wilton (sometimes a full crossover/duplication on those two!), while the Chinese-looking infant in blue shorts is a current 'baby shower' thing. The driver might be a more conventional vehicle accessory, or a sledder/tobogganist?

TV-Movie (these days we should probably say 'mixed media' or pop-culture) figures, I think the Woody is a Tomy capsule toy, the Hulk key-ring was Kinder a year or two ago, so Jerry probably is as well?

The mini Topo Gigio (The Italian Mickey!) is the third now, all in different colours, and at less than 20mm; almost too small for a board-game, but I have no other ideas, more on him here, where we learn he made it to the Ed Sullivan show in the 'States and went global (I totally missed him?), which must have produced some steam in already steamy Florida!

Corgi batbiker, Kellogg's Golly, Mr Somebody who looks like a minion but probably pre-dates them by a decade or two (nothing new under the sun) and who might be a product mascot? A baseless Sam Gamgee (? Hobbit!) and others make up an eclectic line-up which highlights the words in the opening paragraph.

Seated figures; as I think I've said and like parachute-toy figures, these are so numerous it's untrue, but some come-up all the time, others are nicely new! Second blue one from the left might be a bus-driver, the green one could be from a milkman board-game - several versions with nice 'Dime Store' milk trucks.

Firefighters from various sources including the old Airfix kit (top right) who seem to have provided the influence for Matchbox's (reversed later by Jack Odell for his own Lledo line!) and a bunch of racing-car drivers add to at least two Tudor Rose figures (middle red and bright yellow) for the whole.

Mostly die-cast accessories; the dancer/snow babe flats are the European versions of the US 100 Doll comic mailaway, themselves partly copied from a better Euro-set, and which are not the soft 'ethylene Betterware dancers. the blue 'clippy' lady - bottom right - probably goes with the bus driver as his conductress; someone broke-up a plastic bus from Hong Kong?

I didn't look properly at the miniature doll (who is now in storage), but Chris mentioned the other day that she is marked Wales? Well that could make her Thomas/Poplar, or - more likely - an earlier minor make? Obviously for Doll's houses, she is very different, anyone know her origins? For Croyden-based Bartons? Tri-ang Toys had a plant in Merthyr Tydfil, their sister Mettoy in Swansea, but neither known for marking 'Wales'. However - she's a 'solid' so welcome in the collection!

I like the modern-looking girl/woman next to her too! Yellow-lady is usually found feeding dolphins on the back of a Corgi circus truck, the rubber police-man was a key-ring (another!) and top left appears to be Steve Erwin, the famous Aussie one, so, a board game?

The guy in-line with handbag-girl, to her right, looks very interesting, quite old and to be missing a wheelbarrow (nice find Chris), with commoner figures from HK (Shepherd), Matchbox (fireman and Edwardian 'bobby'), Corgi (milkman) and Mini Models (policeman) completing the parade!

These are the Hong Kong Kentoys (we've seen their 'Wheelers' here as emergency sets and military), and the mini rubber animals from two posts back came with the farm (if only I'd Googled them earlier, I would have looked knowledgeable!), you can see the modular construction of the scenery, although it was the trees which had me try Kentoy in the search-bar!

These don't look as if they go with the Kentoys, and you can't see any in the search results, but they may be hidden in a bag behind the packaging, and the drivers look similar in material to those animals, so it's a 50/50 question mark whether they are the same line or a different maker altogether!

But . . . you know . . . Wagons! Although if you were to utilise their given 1:72 scale (if they are Kentoys) for a model railway layout, I think you'd be wanting to incorporate them in a  fairground-ride on the village green rather than busying the station forecourt!

Again, Thanks to Chris for these, they all add to the whole, and make a fun and interesting post!

C is for Civilian Stuff

So, looking at the 'highlights from Chris Smith's parcel, I know Chris is always interested to see what I pick and why, but there was so much good stuff in this last lot, I can't possibly do it all justice in a coule of posts, and haven’t even selected things from every pile after the first sort, but here's some of the more interesting pieces.

The Elastolin and Britains copy farm people are generic China-marked soft (probably silicon of some sort) figures of the kind you get in vehicle sets or rack-toys, but are both new to the collection, the little red chap I know but can't remember! I think he's either from Ship Wreck or On the Buses . . . some other bus or ship-related board game, Abandon Ship? Possibly Waddington's?

The two lifeboat crew are interesting, they seem to be from a kit, and while I don't know it for sure, I've a feeling it may be the Frog kit which ended up behind the iron-curtain with . . . Kader? Something like that? But several lifeboats have been manufactured over the years so confirmation still required!

Which leaves the fat policeman! Now, in correspondence with Chris I've already chosen the sucker-guardsman (from the next post) as my favorite thing in the whole lot, but if he hadn't been there, this chap would take the medal. He's marked Hong Kong, but the lack of a base suggests cracker novelty or gum-ball, capsule-machine prize, rather than a die-cast or plastic vehicle set's accessory? He had an approximation of a British 'Bobbies' helmet, but a double breasted jacket more in-tune with 1950's New York cops and while he may be a copy of a less common hollow-cast, he's new to me and I think he's rather lovely.

All the footballers, I've Blogged them (footballers) so often in the last 18-months, if I didn't show all these now, I don't know when we'd get round to them again!

And three new to me, the Perspex flat far-right, middle, is probably an early type of Subbuteo figure, possibly from the Rugby game? The blue-and-white pair below him are quite statue-like and I wonder is they are a late replacement for the even more stolid Waddington's soccer set we've seen here previously?

While the Claret and Blue fella' (he's Hammer's!! Not poxy Palace) is totally new to me and a really nice figure around 35mm. the rest have been seen in one form or another here and consist of the ball-kicking novelty figure, a Culpitt, some Subbuteo and various blow-football figures, but why there are three colours of one type is a bit of a mystery.

So soon after the trio from Kevin (?), comes another, not the missing pose, nor the missing colour but neither a full duplicate either, so that 'group' or sample has grown! And I was wrong with the fractal-face thing, they are smaller ones; copies of these, this one has a separate plug-in face, held in place by a larger plug-in 'fish-bowl' visor.

There was also a small space novelty, which has particular resonance in this of all years, I spent sometime trying to get the metal ball to go down a hole, before realising it didn't have a hole, it's more of a rattle to annoy a cat with! I must exercise my glasses' prescription.

From the cartoon and TV/Movie pile comes a very eclectic collection of polymer and composition novelty 'stuff'. Woodie and Scoobie are both pencil-toppers of relatively recent manufacture, the little boat has probably lost its sail, but now goes quite well with the 'Brown WaterNavy'.

The composition thing is supposed to be a hedgehog I think, and is missing a pipe or cigar or cigarette, which is replaceable, but only once I've discovered whether it should be composition, a scrap of wood, metal or plastic? German? Easter thing? And technically a composite rather than composition, due to the stuck-on mohair hairpiece and the missing mouth-accessory.

The Beetlejuice 'snake' is fun. I was re-watching the film a few months ago and though "There's not many toys of this film?" when one turns up! It seems to be an accessory from a larger action figure set, but with the head around 54/60mm compatible I can see him reappearing at some point, wrapped round a ner-do-well! Soft PVC or silicon, he has set bends which don't equate to pencil-topping, but he must have wrapped around something or someone?

From the animal pile are a few items worth a mention now. The three dinosaurs are china-marked re-issues of earlier 1970's Hong Kong tools, but are useful as they tie two marks and two paints together by being of the same plastic, which helps sort the rest out of the 'unknown' zones.

The little Joal tiger is a bit paint-faded but a lovely sculpt, the turkey is another item for the Fontanini pile, while the deer (which looks quite new) has some kind of locating plug on its tail. I wonder if it's part of an early-learning thing were you plug him in where it says D is For Deer of something like that? I also think I've seen it before, but maybe another animal? If anyone knows, put the rest of us out of our curious misery by telling us!

Below we have four of the Merit animals we looked at in two posts back at the beginning of the blog, they come with a steam-traction engine circus 'train' and/or with a Noah's ark set, and there are so many colours I'll be ferreting them away until I die and not have all of them!

The post finishes with a die-cast Kinder elephant (left) and a nice little monkey (right) who's new to me, seems to be loosely-based on the old Timpo monkey with ball, but err . . . without ball!

O is for Odds and Ends

Well, it seems we're having a second football mini-season this year, purely by accident or coincidence I can assure you, I thought I'd cleared the decks of footballers back in January, but then I regularly think that about insects, dinosaurs, fish, motocycles and various other perennials - which are all back in the queue!

This is from Terranova, who sent it after the January mini-season, so it started the follow-up folder! A printed card or plastic flat figure included in a goal-keeping/scoring game of the 'executive' toy or table-top game variety. It's almost a scale-up of one of the Yorkie Easter-egg premiums from Hasbro/Subbuteo we looked at a few years ago, or a variation of 'Blow football' wich tends to have two goalies and not much else.

Franklin also do a mini Table Tennis game. Cheers Brian!

These two came in recently as well, one possibly at PW, the other - I think - was in the lot which turned-up out of the blue from Jim, but they may both have been from Jim?

The one on the right is a cake decoration, there are several generations with or without balls, with or without textured bases of the swoppet type and with or without shirt-numbers, figures and/or bases being PVC, 'ethylene and/or polystyrene.

I will be looking at them fully after everything's out of storage as the master-collection of these is there! This one is obviously missing his base, but there'll be spares in storage, so I should have him back on his feet by September.

The other is a converted (loop removed!) key-ring, one of a set of maybe four poses, each pose however . . .

Old eBay shot

. . . seems to have been sold singly in multiples of 12! The Henry Ford school of team-picking, you can have any 11 players you like, plus a substitute, but they must all be the same!

As you can see the carded set has a reverse of the above guy - dribbling with the left foot-  in a blue/white strip  and I've also seen a guy striking with the right foot in red strip with a white ball.

Although - I say 'maybe four' because I've seen a better-sculpted figure striking with the left foot, slightly more anatomically correct and with a realistic and more-proportional head, so suspect the short fat ones are bootlegs of the taller, thinner ones (also key-rings) with both sets/series having two dribblers and two strikers, but that’s all conjecture and there could be more, or less!

I love the card too, a German man-child taking-out a British goalie (in a clown mask), with 'Footballers' in a Kellogg's font and 'Key Chain' in a Chinese take-away, shop-front font . . . it's SO rack-toy!

Shot taken after I'd edited to this point, a blow-football figure as mentioned above (which did come-in at PW), there are dozens-upon-dozens of variants in tin-plate, printed card, wood or plastic and I haven't the faintest where this chap's from, but if I had to guess I'd say Merit or Spears?

Below him are three of the also mentioned cake decorations (which should have been seen here in January?) next to the new one, they are all 'styrene (with polyethylene bases) against the PVC of the new one and have unpainted numbers as opposed to the blue-chap's lined-in number.

It looks like they may all have balls, but I'm pretty sure some striking and saving poses don't - we will return to them! Also I seem to recall some figures (sub-piracies) don't have numbers at all?

 

Four . . . Years . . . Later . . . !

. . . and Deadleaf Hairband 'Strongly Suspects' they might be key-rings! Bwaahaahaahaahaahaahaa! They are so funny; these PSTSM guys - we KNOW he follows this blog, but somehow he's having to guesstimate it all by his little old lonesome! It's just too funny.