C is for Comedy Candy

As mentioned elsewhere in the last few days, Halloween was just not a thing in the UK, when I was a kid, we didn't 'celebrate' it, we weren't [culturally] aware of its connection with South/Latin America and The Day of the Dead, we didn't import any Halloween 'stuff'.

 

It is, entirely, here at least, a commercial invention (like Father's day) to sell us stuff, and we keep buying it! Ephemeral stuff, piles of polymer stuff, which goes straight to landfill, unnecessary stuff, stuff we don't need, stuff we didn't know we don't need, and . . . amusing, edible stuff!

 

This missed last year's Halloween posts, as it was given to me by a customer I was delivering to, in Frimley Green, on the 31! Under the wrapper it was a smooth, milk-chocolate oval, and very nice!

 

These are in Lidl at the moment.

 

Candy Container.

 

Anything container!

 

I succumbed to some of the polymer shite, myself! There were several colours and I nearly selected the purple one, but decided the clear one would look most like a crystal skull, once emptied, and took that instead, and I think it was a good decision, looking at it empty? I'll find something to keep in it, and it can sit somewhere, looking vaguely sinister! I think it was also Lidl?

 

Not nice! Not-chocolate-mice! Chocolate 'flavour' (not 'flavoured') sugar candy, they taste fatty, and aren't quite as realistic looking as the artwork on the B&M box would suggest. As kids, I remember us being disappointed by mini-eggs at Easter, which were made out of this devil's faux-chocolate!

 

The missing pumpkin from a previous post . . . I bought another pack, they were so cheap! B&M stores, and they did have the more colourful ones, from a couple of years ago, I just didn't see them last time!

 

Also Lidl, these are better chocolate, with some actual chocolate in!

Well - once you've unwrapped it, to photograph . . . ! 

 

The Aldi catalogue shows similar Lollies.

F is for Found Objects - Five of . . . Merchandise

Except there's only four, but the titles are playing their own game, as some of may have noticed!

 

Another thematic one now, to which I've added some non-found objects content to stretch the post out, and again we seem to be firmly in Christmas or Christmassy territory, although some of this stuff is all-year-round gift shop fayre!

 

Tins, specifically, tins which look like houses, or buildings, although, to disprove the rule the instant I establish it, one is just a couple of Pooh Bear images! But it is house shaped and both had rather old tea-bags in, which went on the garden some time ago; it's all good compost/soil conditioner!

The Pooh one, it is what it is!

 

But this, obviously commissioned by Waitrose supermarkets (part of the John Lewis group), almost certainly at/for the Christmas season is charming, showing something akin to the original store (Waite, Rose & Taylor . . . what did Taylor do to be excised?) as a wrap-around artwork.

Scaled around the 25/28mm mark, it would be a shoo-in for old-school wargaming, just plonk it down and declare the area built-up/the high street! I don't know if this had tea, chocolate or sweets in? Something else?

While I shot these in TKMaxx a year ago, both were tea containers I think, German? The same roof/lid but one a two-story Southern German municipal building (Rathaus Teabagg), the other more of a Wilhelminian town-house over three floors! That's it; a bit of fun!

B is for Bone Breaker's Old Jones Bones!

Back together again apparently, but I don't even remember their first hit? Clearly a full-on homage to the Bone Shaker candy of the past, and of which we've seen the coffin here now once or twice, and very chuffed to find these.

When I couldn't find whatever I thought was in the queue for this year and realised I didn't have anything to post today, I remembered I had seen these in the window of a local sweet shop, but I had been rushing to somewhere else and they were busy, so I made a mental note to go back for them, which I did last Saturday (nine days before THE day), but they had not only sold-out, but sold the one/s in the window, and announced they hadn't re-ordered!

So, I thought; "Well, they must be online, and I've got a week?", so off to Google, where the most obvious result was an eBayer called The Wee Sweetie Company trading as Letterboxsweeties, who sent me three, from Dundee (or Glasgow?) in less than two days and for no more than a couple would have set me back locally, and that; Ladies & Gentlemen, is why the High Street is dying!

And "Specially produced in China for the Crazy Candy Factory - World of Sweets" (Leicester and Belfast), I hate to think what damage to the planet my purchase represents, but I know some scientists (and the Secretary-General of the UN) are only giving us about two years or less to save the planet now.

Although presumably new tools, the compressed chalky sugar candy (which I dislike) seems to follow the pattern of the old Bone Shaker faithfully and consists of 12 pieces, I did try one in case they were nicer than I thought, and it was rock hard for the first few bites, hence 'Bone Breaker', then melted away rather disappointingly.

But was otherwise as I remembered it; a bit chalky and not very tasty, or that sweet? Nor did it have the tang of sherbet, so the eleven remaining bones went under the hedge to feed insects after rain, while the other two coffins are still sealed for 'posterity'!

But not before I'd constructed the 'puzzle' once, for the Blog! For some reason the green and white sections are thinner than the other colours? Anyway, I managed - at the eleventh-hour to contribute something to the Blogs Halloween Day! This has reminded me . . . new paragraph -

When we were kids, little kids; about seven or eight maybe, someone gave us some Pez; not the holders, just the refill packs, which were similar candy, and we didn't like them, but as they were chalky-pink and brick-shaped, we glued-them into walls for our 54mm Toy Soldiers (with balsa-cement I think?), and a few were still hanging around, glued to cereal-pack card bases, when we moved from there in 1980, about ten years later - I don't know what they make that stuff out of, but it's nasty stuff!

HK is for Chinatanks II

This post was going to have a few more shots, but as I started editing them I realised I didn't even know why I took them, despite having some notes, but I think the notes were more for my own benefit, or curiosity than anything else, anyway, I'm going to share them with you just to clear them from the 'system'!

Starting to sort, we looked at these a while back with a view of a couple of the sets they come in, and here I'm bringing the loose ones together and sorting them, on the table is the stuff I had here from the TBS (to be sorted) box of AFV's just visible to the left, while the large bag was in storage, with a few other odds that were kicking around.

Which lead me to this tank-park - that's what they call them! The apple green AMX30 to the far right (Marine la Pen's?) is the latest version of these, is the only one found so far, and came with Matchbox-copy infantry and one or two other bits, via Peter Evans a few years ago. it's either unmarked or marked with a plain China, I can't remember. Also it's re-cut to a higher standard than the old ones.

While the three slightly herby-green ones in the centre are a smaller sample/issue/copy-set, who are all marked with a 'Hong Kong' and a capital letter thus;

• ·         T54/55 - 'O'
• ·         Chieftain (missing turret) - 'R'
• ·         Centurion - 'X'

They are all in storage now, and the notes have become as confusing as the rejected photographs, but I think the letter is on both halves, the HK on the hulls?

While the bulk of them have a more complicated set of markings, indeed if the notes are accurate (?) they have one or the other of two or more, but there is a consistency and with the two minor variants above clearly spottable, it's all a bit academic!

The turret numbers, are to help the packing staff get the right turret on the right hull, something which seems to have sometimes been strictly adhered to, sometimes totally ignored, consequently I've all these and still not colour-matched a lot of them - as you can see!

The number is found inside the turret and somewhere within the turret-ring moulding on the top of the hull, all the above are good-enough for 1:144th war games. Make of all that what you will, it's pretty nerdy-farty stuff, but it's out of Picasa and on a storage dongle, phew!

Because they were the next lot down in the box, I reshot the bubble-gum tanks while I had a parade-ground for them! We've seen them before once or twice, and I think I've bored you with how nasty the gum was, that it looked like a pencil-eraser and that we were 4/6 when we had them so late 1960's as a vague date. And we've also seen an earlier (1950's) Manurba one from which these Hong Kong ones were copied.

T is for 6 - a Trio of Terrible Twosomes!

These only came-in yesterday, and they were gratefully received from our correspondent in New York, as A) shelfies have had a poor show this year - for obvious reasons, and B) I haven't got much for Halloween this year, but we should end-up with five posts?

Except that at midnight last night I hadn't actually blurb'ed any of them and two still need photo-editing, while the last's photo's are still on the camera, so we'll see what I get done before the pumpkins turn to mush at midnight tonight - watch this space . . . in the meantime; Shelfies!

Bobble Heads! Bodies' look resin with a spring set in to the material, so the heads probably are too, to get the necessary weight to jiggle the spring! Both standard Halloween fare; a skeleton (with a dicky-bow!) and a pumpkin-man (who looks pre-George III, harking back to a better era!), you'd give them shelf space, wouldn't you?

Bobble-bodies! These guys are those solar-powered dancers a certain kind of taxi-driver likes to place on the dash-top . . . "You dan'sin for ME?!", and I know domestic lighting is enough to keep them going for hours!

Bobble-butt's! An improvement on the pooping Trump we shelfies a while ago now, as they both poop candy! Although I'm sure the candy on the left will taste all the sweeter! Think; if Biden looses on Tuesday, this will become a very collectable piece of 'also-ran' memorabilia in a few years time!

Many thanks to Brian Berke for these shelfies and there's more Halloween stuff to come but I have to go and finish editing them!

T is for Two (Which Became Three!) - Space Transports

Also in the Really Useful Box (previous post) was this pair, and again I haven't the faintest idea where either of them came from, but they are a couple of crackers, one an ephemeral piece of tat never designed to survive more than a summer's day or two in the garden, the other a classic piece of US 'dime-store' plastic in a weird red colour which changes - depending on the light - from purple, to pink, to maroon and back again!

I'm guessing from the large'ish, clip-on canopy that this was a candy-container, or more-likely - from the size of the compartment - a single-pastille bubble-gum container? Scaled to a rough 20/25mm figure wise and manufactured in the style of earlier dime-store toys from Pyro, Kleeware and their ilk, it's a space-ship/vessel of sorts and shot in brittle styrene with additional metal axles / ethylene wheels.

The little glued-on, stand-off frame that holds the wheels clear of the body looks to be a generic moulding that would also fit a tank, armoured-car or civil vehicle, so there may have been a assortment of these?

Is it browny-red or heliotrope purple? This is really nice but I have no recollection of buying it, maybe at one the NEC Birmingham/BP-shows? Definitely a 'space-age' or concept car of the 1950's and similar to other space cars including the Kilgore one we saw again the other day.

I don't know if it was issued under the Wannatoys branding, but this seems to be a Dillon Beck original, marked Dillon Beck USA on the interior and having a DB number-plate, or more accurately 'licence-plate'! There used to be a lovely azure-blue 'Futurecar' somewhere on the Internet, but I can't find it now, also with the DB 'quality' (if you believe Nabisco!) triangle and the same red canopy, it was a bit smarter than mine and had no whitening glue-marks!

I nearly forgot this was sitting in Picasa . . . so T is for Three! This one is a Wannatoys branded one and we've seen it before in two colours, but I shot this on Adrian's stall ages ago and it's been waiting for a dime-store space post!

Sizer; the car is closer to 28mm/1:48th I fear, but the ship can be a single-seat 1:72nd, or snug, two-man 1:76th! In a galaxy far, far away, long, long ago, they had A-wings, B-wings and X-wings . . . among other wing types, I think this latest addition to my space-fleet must be a sandbag-wing!

J is for Jellyman!

This post is entirely due to the regular donations and contributions of Peter Evans, and in this case have been slowly accruing over many years, the boat having been given to me so long ago I can't remember when! Then the helicopter came with the green A/Car and this year a sand recce-vehicle and the cyclist joined the tub, which will remain as a tub, due to their all being that oddest of sub-genres; the candy-container!

So, Jellyman - an armoured car filled with candy, they were those chalky ones a lot of these novelties come with and were secreted in full-view in the clear-plastic superstructure, the turret providing the lid. It has a pull-back-and-go spring-motor and - most importantly - a figure . . . or at least an upper torso, head and left-arm . . . saluting!

They also operate in the desert, literally with Arabic/Halal consumer-info/status and figuratively with the 'paint-job'!

Jellyman's take on the Hind D (or Apache?) helicopter-gunship looks like it's eaten all the candies, being a bit short and fat! The pull-back motor also drives the main-rotor, and can be operated either by pulling-back on the wheels or with a draw-cord.

I tried to wreak the mechanism in seeing how it could work (i.e. how can the wheels wind the motor if the cord is flush with the model, or how can the cord wind the motor if the wheels are jammed in the carpet?), but failed on both counts (wreaking and understanding), so can only assume a clever slipping-clutch mechanism on a dirt-cheapie toy?

I don't know if this is Jellyman or a similar outfit, the two holes behind the crew are not for more crew (although they could be used as such) but rather for a clear candy-tank, now missing.

As pointed-out in the intro-paragraph, Peter gave me this years ago and it just sort of got 'filed' as a novelty to be Blogged at some point in the future, I guess this is that point!

It has a pull-back motor (like Jellyman) and you can see the remains of a desert version (like Jellyman) underneath, so if it isn't Jellyman it must be a direct predecessor?

While this definitely isn't Jellyman, as it's marked-up to Fantasy Toys & Candies (or 'F') and is now my largest bicyclist! His candy-capsule is disguised as a large day-sack or odd-shaped rucksack and his 'Urgent' stickers suggest he's a courier who should have been delivering to me, but the container was empty!

Cheers Peter - The closest we get to this stuff out in the sticks are those Kinder knock-off capsule-eggs with a naff finger-ring, spinning-top or strip of stickers!

R is for Rocketry

We'll pull the shutter down on 'space day' after this one! having taken your winged Electra-Glide or fancy train into town avoiding the steam-punk road roller on the way, you need transport of an altogether more violent nature to escape the 'surly bonds of Earth' and travel to your intergalactic heavy-weapons stations....

...and there's no shortage of choice in the space-port today! the Chromium-plated Thunderbirds ones are candy-container lids I think? Or actually candy-containers, missing their lids..sherbet dips? The dime-store three-stage is unknown to me, while the chocolate-brown cap-bomb is a particularly fine example of the genre, although passengers must be strapped to the outside please!

Two Wannatoys space-cars might have made for a better trip to the space-port, than either a Harley-D or a 'streamlined' train! Although the cockpit nacelle/bubble-canopy is the wrong way round on one of them and it's not that clear which one!

A close-up of the dime-store rocket and a couple of larger space weapons....one - the missile-launcher is a very common design, being given away with American cereals, British comics, copied by Jean &etc...ad nauseum in dozens of slightly different designs and various polymers - we will return to them, in a post of their own one day.

The other is a copy in plastic of the Lone Star army-lorry piece originally a die-cast item.

B is for Bubble-gum Battle-wagons

We've looked at these before I think, and we will return to them one day, because I like them and it's my blog!

The one nearest to the camera is the one I remember from my childhood as far as colours and turret shape goes, but there were two turret designs and various colours. The pellet or pastille of gum contained within looked like a slightly over-sized pencil-end eraser, was the same pink shade and tasted absolutely disgusting!

These are Hong Kong products and I always thought they were copies of the Manurba ones which are in more primary colours with polystyrene turrets (these are all-ethylene polymer), but I'm beginning to wonder if the Manurba ones weren't that rare thing; reverse piracy, with a Western company copying an HK product, the detail on these is very sharp, my Manurba one - if memory serves is not so well defined...that's the excuse to look at them again - when the Manurba ones come out of storage!

C is for Candy Container

A seasonal post today...60 or 70 years ago you might well have found this - or something like it - in your merry festive stocking! Although; it may be older? I don't know and a quick Google wasn't much help, but I know that by the 1960's it was all card tubes of Rowntree's Pastilles and Jelly Tots or shaped netted cards of Santa, snowman or deer's head 'selection packs'.

A mixture of hand-painted celluloid, styrene, tin-plate and rubber sleeves (which may be non-original additions to protect the sprung, concertina arms?), this would have been filled with sweets and is quite a work of artistry, if otherwise rather ugly by today's sensibilities!

Post-war or between the wars?