G is for Grail Found!

I managed to find one of my non-toy soldier 'grails' at the November Sandown Park show, we had the Captain Scarlet MSV (Maximum Security Vehicle), with it's repurposed Hornby O-gauge packing crate, filled with gold bars, and this beast, but we never had the little red Security Vehicle, although several of our friends did have it, but this was the one I always missed, after they'd gone to the great church-fate monster!

 

And this one was both cheap, and the early version we had, so perfect. The Spectrum Pursuit Vehicle (SPV), a rather mad, windowless, half-tracked space-tank! It seems to have two jet-turbine engines making it pretty vulnerable to frontal fire, and the shtick was that Captain Scarlet controlled it from a desk, deep in the heart of the vehicle, but, he's approximately 1:76th, so always had loads of infantry support, courtesy of Airfix, for a vehicle the size of a house!

 

It was only cheap because it's missing its missile, but I have several in various colours in the bits boxes. I saw three rather well-renovated Shadow 2's last weekend, from the other Gerry Anderson staple, UFO, and nearly bought one for the missile, just so I could shoot this with it, but they had the evilBay repro' versions, and they just aren't right! So we'll return to this one day, Mike Burrows goes through the various versions here. Looking at his, mine could do with a clean!

D is for Dinky Dinky's, 'cos they're very Dinky!

Box ticking a couple of catalogues with what many of us kids considered the epitome of die-cast vehicle toys, the Gerry Anderson stuff! And it's funny how it coincides with the advent of mass-use colour TV, they never bothered with Fireball XL5 or Supercar, but once we were enjoying 'Supermarionation' in pantechnicolourfullness, the licences were worth the investment!

 

The 10th catalogue (1974 I think?), we never really saw Joe 90 or UFO, but we were great fans of Thunderbirds and Stingray and would catch the odd episode of Captain Scarlet, so we didn't want for the odd 'fix' but usually round a mate's house, we rarely had a telly, or not one that worked! Also, Mum made me watch Fireball before I was old enough to enjoy it, because she loved it, and would watch it while feeding me!

 

From the 12th Catalogue comes the previous year's (1975) new thing, the Eagle Transporters from Space 1999, loved that, I was a little bit in lust with the alien girl Maya who kept turning into a big-cat, or other things!

We tended to share our toys until we were older, and I think the SPV came, near-mint, from a church-fete (a lot of our toys did!), while i can't remember if either of us 'owned' the Thunderbird 2 (ours was the 'proper' green, with flimsy legs) or Maximum Security Vehicle (dropped from this catalogue along with the Patrol Car), but I know my Brother was sole owner of the FAB 1 Rolls Royce operated by Parker for Lady Penelope, and I think he saved-up and bought it with his own money?

The Armoured Command Car was based on a prop to be used in Gerry Anderson’s planned The Investigator, a series that was cancelled after Dinky had produced the masters, so they gamed it, with a quick military look and accessories, and issued it anyway!

While the Eagle Transporter made it to the back cover as well, with a simplistic 'blue-print' graphic. That's got them in the Tag-list! Next?

F is for Five, Four, Three, Two, One . . . Thunderbirds are Mini!

I had a little tub of sub-scale Thunderbird models, which I shot back in 2018, but never got round to posting, and while they've been sorted into the stuff which was in storage and gone back to storage, I've four more smallies come-in since, so a quick but not very informative overview of small and very small Thunderbirds now.

So this is what was in the tub, it's an eclectic mix of odd-scale and mostly 'micro' vehicles, the majority taken from the old TV series, but there's at least one hideousity from the remake movie, which seems to have sink with minimal trace, as it deserved to!

 

From the left, we have a small vinyl FAB1, of which there were two in the tub, and I vaguely recall my Brother and I, having one each, many years ago, so they might have been counter-top cheapies?

The left-hand Thunderbird 4 a big thing I don't know much about, a Carlton jobbie, from recent years, I suspect? While the die-cast (bottom right) is from the reissue T2? The little one at the back is from the original Dinky Toy Thunderbird 2, and we had the proper green one, not the weird 2nd issue in metallic blue?

The orange thing is probably from the same source as the previous Thunderbird 4, and presumably another pod-vehicle for T2 to fly about the place with? I have no idea on the teeny T3, which may be a cracker/gumball thing.

 

While the multicoloured Thunderbird 3 is from that set of PVC-alikes with the Colorforms copies, and while I have the whole set in storage, with the other vehicles, this one was in the tub.

The  new-shape Thunderboird 2 on the other-hand, is just nasty, isn't it? Just phuqing nasty, blerraach!

Two cereal premiums from Kellogg's Sugar Smacks if I recall correctly? And the diminutive little Thunderbird 1 is the 'scale-model' being carried by Bones on the Xandria key-ring from Holland.

 

We have looked at these before, and I still need a T3 and Maximum Security Vehicle, but here's a quick shot as a reminder, I've since ID'd a couple of variations worth a quick note . . . 

 

The T1 comes in different shades of blue, suggesting at least two production runs, and the T2 likewise, although the difference isn't so marked and my paler one is missing its engine nacells.

 

To which (above) I've added these in recent moths, there are two larger models from Bandai, the Carlton-licenced cereal giveaway from Captain Scarlet and I've included three figures which have also come in.

The blue chap with the glue-stain, is probably from a plastic model kit out of Japan, I don't know which, and he may not even be Anderson-related, but he looks the part of a Troy Tenpest! The seated guy is from one of the Spectrum Pursuit Vehicle (SPV) reissue's but whether Carlton, Dinky or Vivid I can't remember, while the other guy is like Micromachines, but 'Action Fleet' size, and probably a Carlton thing?

Returning to Thunderbirds first - the two Bandai's are pull-back motor equipped for whizzing about the [smooth] floor, and both are slightly 'deform' in the fashion of a lot of Japanese toys these days, and dated China 1982, which is recent in Toy terms?

 

The SPV from Captain Scarlet was one of two I needed to complete my cereal premium sample, and I've managed it, but can't bring myself to break out the Spectrum Patrol Car (red thing) yet; I'll probably wait for a loose sample?

 

I think we've seen the figures loose before, but I now have all but one bagged as well, these are not rare, and somewhere like Sandown Park will always have a few somewhere. Captain Blue, Captain Scarlet, Destiny Angel and Captain Black.

BS is for BraveStarr . . .

. . . but it's probably bullshit!

I've been told (by 'old guards' in the hobby) these were produced as BraveStarr knock-off figures from the Mattel action-figure TV tie-ins, but having used BraveStarr (or Brave Star) myself in the past once or twice, in-fact I now believe they are Galaxy Rangers' knock-off's from Galoob's similar action figure line!

There have been several robotic or Sci-fi type Wild West themed things in popular culture over the years including the original and recent re-hash of Westworld (where they are meant to look human), DC's Weird Western Tales and later Johna Hex, while Tex Arcana - I think (Arcanna, Arcaana?) - is another one, and there were various short stories in Metal Hurlant (Heavy Metal).

Morbius did one I seem to recall (or was it a 2000AD Tharg's 'Future Shock'?), where we see them from the backs round a camp-fire, all Stetson's, gun-belts and leather jerkins, talking 'supper' until in the last panel they are revealed to be aliens - eating a human? I may have invented the last bit; the pink monkeys may only have been herded into the corral, for eating later?!

Anyway . . . Galaxy Rangers not BraveStarr or Brave Star or Brave Staar!

So far I've tracked down 10 foot-poses, but they do keep turning-up, so I'm not 100% sure if this is all the poses. Robot 'cowboys' with ray-guns, I'm told (yep; by the 'old guard') they were Hing Fat branded (but don't know what the header card said, or if it was Hing Fat's) and are seem to have been issued in the same colours as their (Hing Fat's) MPC Astronaut copies.

The second figure on the top row and the first on the bottom row (both blue) are 'fem-bots' being clearly modelled as females!

Mounted Figures; three of the four poses found so far, the reason I've only shown three is not down to a lack of robot horses, but that the fourth (below) doesn't sit well in the saddle! The middle-one is another fembot and there are only the two horse-posess found so far, each coming in black or several shades of oxide red-brown.

The black horse above is the sporty, turbo-reconnaissance number with aerodynamic cowls over the head and tail and an overall streamlined or slim look, the brown ones are the broader, heavy APC's for ramming stuff and kicking things about! They even have Star Wars AT-AT knee and shoulder-joints and a scaled-down AT-AT head!

The other rider on the left, on the right the three commonest versions of one of the standing figures; the mould tool obviously flexed badly, and you find more figures with flash down the leg than without.

But the flash can be either side and is very heavy, needing carving away, rather than the usual light-slice with a scalpel, it's frankly easier to paint it as a scenic shrub or rock, or short-circuiting flames! I'm guessing they were two cavities, next to each other and the 'bridge' of tool metal between them would bend upwards, allowing both legs to over-spill?

They are - Like most Hing Fat stuff - a bit on the small-side, around the 50mm mark and are here compared with a right eclectic bunch of ner'do-wells I had to hand as I sorted some of the 'space' stuff.

From the rear.

They are - Like most Hing Fat stuff - a bit on the shite-side, both in sculpting and finish, but they are pretty unique, so I think a good paint-up and some scenic-basing would improve them considerably, especially given there's nothing to really judge them against. Singly they could also be used as stand-alone 'Mechs' in small-scale war-gaming forces or for steam-punk stuff.

Several of the figures have jet-pack type objects on their backs, while the fem-bots have wild manes of hair.

I'm not terribly happy with the photo's on this post, I think I did them a bit hurriedly, so we may return to them one day, or I'll take better images for the Hing Fat entry on the A-Z - when I get round to it!

 

03-10-2020 - Confirmed as 'Galaxy Cowboys' by Hing Fat (phew!) on Sean's Fantasy Toy Soldier Blog, and thanks to Chris Smith for pointing me there; they'd been there all along!

T is for There Were Other Colour's Available!

Black (always the baddies, the baddie cowboys always had black denim!), white, green . . . errrr . . . blue; I think there was a blue one!

 

Captain Scarlet? Meet Captain Scarlet . . . 

. . . Scarlet? Meet the Scarlet's!

Three iconic sculpts of an icon. Gerry Anderson don't you know . . . I'm struggling to find blurb here; have you noticed?

Because it's all in the image really. And while you don't need 400 words (it'd take an idiot to subscribe to software that might come out with crap like that in the first-place!), you do need enough 'blurb' to let Google know what the imagery is all about; if you want it included in search results . . . as I'm not that bothered - that'll do for this post!

Did I mention Gerry Anderson's Captain Scarlet? Personally; I think the Carlton-licensed PVC/vinyl Weetabix one is the best; the Timpo one is a bit wooden and the action figure is, well - a doll.

♩♪♫  Captain Scarlet - INDESTRUCTABLE!♩♪♫

H is for Whirlybirds!

Well; I intended to try and do a small follow-up to the Kamley post, specifically on the twin-rotor jobs as I knew I had the second shot below, but as these things do sometimes, the post grew rather and while it's not all of them (I found another two putting some of these away!), it's a reasonable overview of placky-tacky rack-toy Helichopp'ters!

It's funny, because the Kamley post grew 'organically' in the same way, as bits were added, fell into place or got re-shot and yet - because I had the old shots from the 2012 helicopter photo-shoot we've been getting the odd post out of for some time - I never went to check the tub, which, if I had, would have revealed that I had all three versions of the Kamley all along!

It must have come from Brian Carrick, Garreth Morgan or Peter Evans, so thanks to the three of them for all the rack-toy stuff they've fed me in recent years. Therefore, in the suspected order, from front to back of the upper shot, the three main variations of Kamley-Kositoy-KS twin rotor which begins life looking more like a stripped-down Chinook and ends life looking more like a Sea Knight.

And the wheel-failure thing continues in the helicopter department with the absentee from the other day also only having one set!

Below them are the original reason for the thought behind this post, the modern clones, although time marches-on and the sandy one is probably no (or not much) newer than late Kamley's, a machine it's definitely based-on. I can't now remember where it came from but I've had it since the late 1990's and it came with a 'Gulf War' (the legitimate one) themed rack-toy 'Army Man' header-carded bag o'shite.

The other three are far more Chinookey-likey, with the red and blue ones originating in play-sets (bagged, carded, toob'ed or bucket) with the fire-fighters and police we looked at back at the beginning of this year's RTM.

I think they accompany the Top Toy/pound-shop types we've looked at before, but can't be arsed to check and if you look carefully the military one is slightly different (possibly the donor for the red/blue clones) so there will be other sources such as MTC, Jaru, Hing Fat, Toy-wotsit or Hunson for one design or t'other (see Erwin; anyone can produce a wordy-list of current "so called joggers"!).

Again I could check but can't be arsed - I remember posting the army one though; as I commented at the time about the non-matching rotor blades (I left one off this time!), so Poundland (Funtastic) or 99p Stores (Top Toys?).

This is a variation of the shot we saw the other day and just gets it out of Picasa!

I think we had this as a mini-post either last RTM or one of the Christmas novelty posts? The wheel-failure problem continues unabated in my cheapie-helicopter park! Still - at least they are both there in the bag; it's the rotors that have gone AWOL and it seems to be a reasonable copy of the Kamley 'II', but with nipples where the missing rotors should be anchored!

The little die-cast (from my mum, who - at 80 - panders to my strange obsession with kiddies toys!) is the sort of thing you often find in the kinds of sets we looked at last Sunday and is a copy of a late Matchbox or Corgi toy from the 1980/90's, while the wheel-failure yellow one is confirmed/supported by an opposite colour-way, in a carded set clearly harking to the (then current) campaign in Vietnam or - at a stretch - Malaya/Borneo/Brunei (then recent).

Closest to a Model 61 Bell HSL, it remains a made-up model from the fevered imagination of a Hong Kong Chinese designer!

"Which one shall I take-out today?"

It was at this point the post was going to end, but having included the green background shot I thought I may as well clear them all from Picasa, so this was taken in 2012 and was (still is) the contents of the Odds & Sods tub. Easier to number them and wiz-round the arrangement from the top left clockwise:

Number-1 is a relatively modern take on the old 1960's precursor to Chinooks (Belvedere or Shawnee?); 2 were German bubble-gum capsules, I think they are missing a floor which clipped onto the wheels, it may have been card (?), I've certainly never seen one and sources differ on whether they are Manurba or Siku in origin, the clear-orange styrene one being probably earlier than the ethylene yellow one and; like the bubble-gum tank, probably made by several suppliers?

3 is Kinder, missing it's skids and I have a green one complete in storage with other Kinder's so a return to them is inevitable. I suspect 4 is from some carded set of divers, or spies or some TV related stuff (sentient simians?), from/via someone like Larami or Imperial? It's rotors have snapped like chalk with age.

5 is a common-enough HK take on the Soviet-era Kamov utility/spotter (I think! Tals all wrong - married to bits of a Wasp?), 6 was also a capsule toy, but I don't think it was Kinder, one of the lesser makers like Ziani maybe? 7 is the other aircraft (British - Wessex) from that carded set above and several like it, it also survived for years as an individually-bagged 'party favour' alongside the Kamov and a third similar design.

Which leaves 8, ID'd over on the Moonbase Central as a Captain Scarlet design from Gerry Anderson (I stated to write Adams there!) if I recall correctly. It belongs in the same 'Army Man' sets as number 1.

Seen here before, but by this point I was grabbing anything Hong Kong and helicopter-related I found to chuck in the post! A boxed generic from Tai Sang mirroring their brand Blue Box's own sets and containing a diminutive Wessex type along with late soft-plastic Blue Box GI's.

The lower shot was taken ages ago, since when the US airframe has gone to Blue Cross (with various other donations), the animal charity, I regularly take stuff in with a "Try it at 20p per item for a week and send the unsold to recycling after!", but I always keep at least one of each for the master collection, which is in the upper shot.

The 'British Cobra'* is the better of these dirt-cheap 1970/80's HK rack-tat-mobiles, with realistic skids and little flash, either side are lesser sub-copies while the two in front have a daft, plug-in tail-rotor. There is - however - a worse one; the Rado/Ri-Toys version didn't have skids so  much as a couple of scaffold-poles welded to its legs - they all go to charity, I may have set them low, but even I have standards! No; I lie; I have space-limitations!

*we wished - surrounded by 3rd Guards Shock-army and half the Volkarmee with a couple of liaison/orientation-tour Gazelles to our name! And it was no better down at Clay Allee, the Americans only had a few tired, old UH1's to call-on, one of which I rappelled out of, Yes! A day well-spent! But then BB - UK, French, Grenzschutz/Polizei or Yank - was . . . errm, considered . . . 'expendable'!

Tank Hunter-killers with a micro-machine of unknown origin; the smaller die-cast, like the fire service Sea Knight above is another common member of those sets we looked at on Sunday, it looks like the South African entry (Roorikat or something?) in the attack helicopter trials of the 1990's/2000's usually losing-out to the Apache.

The larger one is quite nice and I have a feeling I know where it came from, but it's lost (the note that is) in storage if I do, I think it's a copy of a larger model from someone like New Ray and is well finished in a solid polypropylene at a size which makes it useful for 25mm war gaming. [29th March 2024 - now known to be Redbox, from their 'Commando' playset]

The little one is a mystery, again looking like one of the losing entries in the 'new medium-lift/troop-carrying helicopter' trials around the turn of the century as Pumas and Jolly Green Giants were being scrapped (yet the Chinook flies on - solid fella!), it is in a soft PVC and could be from a board game, or a little set like those Silvercorn suitcases, some micro-toy like Takara's robot Votoms, or dare I suggest modern/current'ish gum-balls?

The closest thing I have to it in general feel and appearance is the painted Dalek donated to the blog by The Toad, years ago, which came from a Dr Who advent calendar, might someone have produced an 'Army Man' calendar, GI Joe, something like that?

This was going to be picture 3 or 4 as a sort of 'forthcoming attractions' finisher, but we seem to have looked at most of them now! Missing totally are the UH1A/B Huey Slicks which may be because they are in storage, or we've already had them and I've hidden the tub somewhere! Try the Helicopter tag?

The two right-hand tubs have new stuff for future posts - giving weight to my Ri-Toys lie; the top right tub is stuffed with smaller choppers, several of which are Rado (some from Moonbase!) while the attack-helicopter tub below it has several additions since the previous shot was taken.

The little scouts, Jet Rangers and OH's haven't been covered at all and I have them in plastic and die-cast, while a bag of painted machines awaiting stripping are the single-bagged ones mentioned earlier (above). The green one lying on top is one of several larger Jet Ranger types that have come-in in the last few years with current toob/tub toys and they can wait a while.

 

Kositoys & Kamley are now known to be brand/brand-mark/s of Kwong Shing - added to tags.

C is for Clip Together

No more than an overview with these today, it was a bit of serendipity and a reader contribution which led to this post and I have many more in storage so we will look at them properly by company/type another day (or: other days!), for now, let's just get an idea of the wide range of mini (or micro) model-kits which were available as - mostly breakfast cereal - premiums, many - but not all - supplied by R&L (Rosenhain & Lipmann) of Australia, primarily (in the UK) to Kellogg's Foods.

Kellogg's liner which we've seen here on the Blog before and racing cars which were also issued by Sanitarium in the antipodes, as well as someone on the continent (Portuguese food company?), so they often turn-up, but with all the little pieces (especially the wheel hubs); are rarely whole. I do have another bunch in storage including orange, red and white examples so we will look at them again one day. The driver moulding is the same for every car, so you can build him half-and-half - two colours, he looks good in black and orange!

Various ages and generations of bits for the Montaplex Bi-plane, I picked these up as a single lot in a larger bag of mixed bits; someone was obviously building himself a 'circus'! Between the bits I can still get one airborne!

These are all soft ethylene plastic with the WWII fighters (and sub-scale Heinkel? Mostly bits) having been given-away in the UK with boys comics (Fury, Valiant and Warlord), as part of the hype surrounding the release of the movie Battle of Britain - I believe? Sellotaped to the cover as an unmade kit on the chunky frame...for years I wondered (not being a 'plane guy') if they were Atlantic, the frames are chunky enough!

The Concord (I think?) is one of three (or four) in a set with The Tupolev and Boing efforts, possibly from Quaker Foods or Weetabix?. I say "I think" as there were several sets with Concord in and I'm not sure which is which!

I bought the bagged ones at a car boot sale quite a few years ago, the chap had loads of them in a fruit basket, so I assumed they were a new issue or a re-issue of older moulds which he'd picked-up as a job lot or as clearance, so bought one of each, but I think they may be the 1970's originals, now, which is annoying as I would have grabbed them all, he only wanted pennies... The broken-up bits have come in with mixed lots over the years and I think between the two shots are aircraft from two different sets?

While the ME109 is probably a modern 1:144 kit, but he's in with the medium-smallies in the unknown bag!

Jet Petrol (gasoline) stations issued this lovely set of 10 (?) cars for quite a while, so they are not too uncommon, and while I'm missing one or two, I'm hoping I might have them in storage, but if not they will turn up one day!

One made-up and broken into its constituent parts, a pair with a colour variation and two soft-plastic (polyethylene) cars from Europe - Spain or Portugal I think...Tito? I do have some Ford and Vauxhall rally cars in this style marked Tito, but these two are unmarked.

The  next four images (below) are all courtesy of Andrew Boyce who sent them to me ages ago (before Christmas?) and I said I'd be publishing "soon", "in a day or two hopefully", "probably tomorrow" then in the February splurge...only for time, Nathaniel and Voda'fail to intervene in their timeless fashion! Can time be timeless? There's an existential debate for a cold winter's evening!



A lovely shot with samples of various sets Kellogg's issued, along with both Gerry Anderson sets complete. I also remember a set of clip-together Tony the Tigers', with another set of train kits coming out of Italy.

Of interest to me in this shot is the set of blue wheels on the red estate car (station-wagon) as the ones I have all came with black wheels and the helicopter which I was unaware of.

This shows the kid's comic ad. for the Captain Scarlet vehicles shown in Andrew's image above, I think I have the Patrol Car somewhere, and shot the SPV before Christmas here on the blog, it's a lovely little model, almost 1:300th scale, with all the little wheels (10 of them in two sizes!) separate.

I suspect these were from a different source than the others, they are much chunkier with only a few (or no - TB4) parts, and lack the finesse of the R&L stuff. It was including some of these in the novelty posts before Christmas which triggered Andrew's contribution, which in turn led me to gather up a few bits and bobs to photograph for this post.

Sugar Stars and Coco Crispies gave-up this set of six vehicles which we will return to one day as I have a tub of whole and partial ones somewhere! Like a lot of these cereal premiums, they were issued elsewhere by other brands or products, sometimes in different combinations, so some seem commoner over here than others, the train and 'Rocket' seem easier to obtain than the car, while I think I've seen the bus (still on the frame) in a small box as an Italian pocket-money toy. 

 Finally; an old scan intended for an article on wagons in Plastic Warrior magazine's little brother 1"W which never happened! A rather damaged London taxi from the 100 Years of Transport above (1834 Hansom Cab) it came with a horse and I think a better version in blue was shown on the Cabinet of Curious Things posts, but I haven't got the images here (editing away from the internet) and the tag list may not help!

I don't often deal with the filthy subject of money, but seeing some of the buy-it-now (BIN) prices of things like this, it's worth considering this: even though you are always competing with other collecting field's aficionados; train buffs, space fans, 'plane-spotters, more general premium collectors, kit guys, TV & Movie fans...so prices are often high even for common examples, you should always remember they made millions of them and you should set a limit and stick to it, I aim at no more than a pound a piece.

Let's do some hypothetical maths; Say two [popular] cereal brands (from the same manufacturer) run a joint-promotion with comic and early-evening TV adds, of a random-packed set of 4 models for 4 months in 1975, selling (even as early as the 1950/60's) maybe 100,000 packs a week to a population of approximately 12,000,000 baby-boom households (now closer to 16 million, but with less school-age kids per household).

100,000 packs x 16 weeks x 2 brands / 4 models = potentially 800,000 individual units of your searched-for 'rarity' were once out there! It's 'ball park' but it's not fancifully way-out there.

'Family Sized' packs may have two models (or five against three, three against two) which might push our fictional total to a million-odd, better known or more popular brands like Cornflakes might issue 500,000 packs a week? Three months (or two years) later the models are run again, or in another brand, or with another foodstuff, or in another country, or the model you're after is put in another set... Tom Smith get the mouldings (Quaker Gladiators) for 25,000 boxes of budget Christmas crackers, in four designs - six years running, or in more 'promotional' boxes (Thunderbirds figures)... a HK company or two copies them (jig toys)...finally some warehouse lets the remnants go by the bagful (Coca-Cola animals) as clearance or pocket-money toys to another country.

There's so much more to these, and as a specific collection, they can take-up surprisingly little room, but take a lifetime to track down as colour variations, mint in pack examples etc...but please - keep it in perspective, a 5-quid or $10 BIN is not worth the pain, when mixed lots might be had for 99p plus postage.

And many thanks to Andrew for the additional images.

Next day...Brian Berke sent this image of a "rubbery" plastic copy from Hong Kong of one of the R&L toys [2023 - probably Rubenstein rack-toys], still on the frame, he remembers the Rocket loco and has a Hansom Cab in the same neutral colour of soft polymer...remembering also they came from a 99-cent store in NY; approximately 1986. And that's a New York pound for scale!