S is for Seen Elsewhere - Space!

I got confused last night, that bronze figure wasn't Lido, it was Archer, but these (first shot) are Lido, seen elsewhere, not that long ago, but I'm trying to get stuff cleared from Picasa, and off the PC, so let's get these out of the way!

 

Lido, Captain Video, the large versions! I'm missing the robot, and there may be a fifth pose, but as a sample which didn't exist two years ago and has literally come in as one's and the painted pair, it shouldn't be too long before I've tracked down the missing miscreants! Note the 1930's leather American football or early Tank Crew helmet, on whom, I assume, is the actual Captain Video himself?

 

I don't know if the two painted ones are factory or 'home' painted, but if home, it was a long time ago, so contemporary with the unpainted issues, I'm not going to strip them, as I have unpainted versions, and you can harm 'styrene in a way you don't damage 'ethylenes, trying to clean them.

 

While this is the latest (and not even the best) line-up of Archer robots. These have all come-in over the last 24-odd months, and add to previously seen samples here, with two Archer on the left, a probably Tudor Rose in green, a - smaller - silver copy by Glencoe unknown and the 'heritage' reissue of the answer-robot! House of Marbles or Keycraft Global? They've both carried the game in recent years?

 

As with the Lone Star 'Richard I's, there will have to be a final comparison with all of them, as this makes about 11 robots now!

 

I wondered where the turquoise one had gone (it's in other images), and upon finding it realised the Glencoe are from the old tools (I think there's a long post, somewhere else on the Wibbly Wobbly Way, which explains it all), so I dug-him out on Sunday afternoon, and here's a corrected image with, from the left

• Archer
• Archer
• Glencoe (recent)
• Tudor Rose
• Unknown (smaller copy)
• Board Game 'Magic Answer Robot' (current)

L is for Lido's Louche Luna Lads

Not a mystery, although they were to me for a while, as they turned-up in 'Blast Off' the other day when I was looking-up Jet Cars! I used to think they might be the French Rex, but they weren't and for a long time I didn't have a clue, but they are to be seen in the aforementioned tome (pp.142) in a Lido 'Toy Parade' header card as Captain Video Space Rangers, which reminded me these were in the queue!

 

Four from evilBay back in 2014, and four from my own collection in three poses, I've never seen these alongside the robot/bird-man aliens of the more common Captain Video figures from Lido, so I think maybe they could have been a seperate issue within the line, or a seperate line using the same branding and accessories (the little 'train' of space vehicles), rather than a part of the larger set?

Knowing so little about them beyond Lido, 'styrene, 50mm'ish and Captain Video Space Rangers, they are just a fun box-ticker! Also while the common line has the cartouche/ovoid bases, these are pod-feet chaps!

L est pour le Coffret de Jeu des Navires Captain Video Supersonic Espace. . . Pas!

Pretty sure these are French (They came from France) and might be Alkastap or Alca/Al-Ca Capell (?), but with no other clues I'll tag them with all the usual Captain Video stuff, as they aren't on Alphadrome's plastic check-list yet, although given the amount of my Blog's stuff that little scally has put on there now, it's only a matter of time before he nicks these, only that won't help with an ID, will it?

Seem to be from the original tools, but until I have them side-by-side I can't say for certain, and obviously copies of the Lido Captain Video Supersonic Space Ships seen here before now, but in softer polyethylene, rather than the frangible polystyrene of the originals.

 

I haven't found the fourth, finned-body yet from this source, but did get a duplicate of the most 'space vehicle' version of the other three, although it's more of a wheeled-bomb than a proper 'space tank'!

 

You can see the bright scarlet red matches the equally soft plastic versions of the Captain Video figures which came into the collection ages ago, and have been seen here more than once I think?

X-40 is for Thunderflash!

Although I seem to recall Arto has it as a 'Space Rocket' too, somewhere. And before we look at it; if you only watch one thing today, this should be your viewing! I know I could embed it, but someone else (cheers Aidan John Bradley) found it on one of my Faceplant groups last night, so it would be a bit naughty, trying to take the kudos!

Apparently designed by Heinkel, it should have been the X-111! Hardly a rack toy, but from the Hong Kong cheapies section of the toy store, and probably something you could save your pocket-money up for over a few weeks, it's a bit ugly, but it grows on you once you have one to handle.

That German bomber nose-cone in full! Obviously, it's all about the figures, and this one is quite neat if hard to photograph, and while collecting vehicles only really took off to ID all those odd seated figures which have come in, the likelihood of finding a good example of this chap loose is unlikely as the amount of damage which would need to be created to free him would almost certainly damage him too! Yes; he has an ariel in his helmet!

 

On the ramp for a vertical launch, an exercise which is not easy as the two lateral fins are also the triggers for an XL5 type launching nose-section/capsule, and - like all these early spaceship toys - the otherwise clean likes are marred by the carpet wheels.

 

Pressing the fins launches the cab-unit, not very far on my example, but that's as much down to age as anything, the spring is a bit rusty! But it does work, and on 1960's lino-floors would have shot-off in a mission-like fashion I'm sure! Indeed, when I first got it, the two halves were apart in the box (it's a bit hair-triggered), and I spent a while wondering if I was missing parts of a battery-housing, before I worked-out what was going on!

 

Navigational equipment and the two fins, I don't think they are meant to come out with quite the ease of my example, but again, we can blame age for everything being a bit loose and flappy 'down below'!

Box Art, nothing exciting and my box is shot to bits, but I'd never bid on a 'new one', they are way out of my budget! And yes, the graphic is clearly aping the Project Sword logo!

 

In comparison with one of the Lido space vehicles for the Captain Video sets, the diminutive American polymer product makes quite a good Space Port tender, or even the apron tow-tractor!

Famous last-words on the pilot, one turned-up soon after, complete with ariel, and then a part-one which allowed a certian amount of restoration to this one too!

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2024/01/r-is-for-red-thunderchief-movie-car-90.html

H is for How They Come In - Recent Purchases

Just a Picasa clearer; a few things I've managed to snaffle in the last few months, which were shot and sitting in Picasa waiting for a job, and this is it!

These were two or three lots/sources I think and we may have see some of them already in show reports, but here they've all been cleaned, some of them were very dirty. I just love 'em and will always grab them when I see them going cheap (£€$12 or £€$24 per figure on eBay gets ignored - they're not rare!), as there are a lot to find.

Here we have three of the late phenolic/early - less than stable - 'styrene ones in bright colours, with, upper left, three similar-aged silver ones, so probably all original Lido or Winco Condar, while the rave-dancer, top right, is a more modern lightweight polystyrene one with a better finish.

The blue one had black spots on, which might have been a past-owner's paint, or a slow-growing mould eating something in the polymer, I couldn't tell, but it hasn't fully removed despite some serious chemicals, so the now pale-purple staining seems permanent?

Going un-bid-on on evilBay, this was Jecsan or Reamsa, I can't remember, the former I think, to go with those over-sized nativity figures I bought in a charity shop a few Christmases ago? And it's big, about 8 or ten inches, gone to storage now, so I can't give you a definitive size, but more Palm-tree comparisons (we did some of the flats a while ago) are in this Blogs future!

I got a eMail from Chris Smith with a link to this lot and one bid secured it! I have some of most or most of some, but as grist-to-the-mill it was worth a speculative bid, and the highlights were the two musicians and the four Wild West, which I think are 1970's French bazaar copies of Dom-Heinerle, Siku or similar, earlier, German premiums?

The pile of pastel Cowboys and Indians are also interesting as they are late, sub-piracies of Giant's own Britains copies, while there are a few plug-in US Marines from rack-toy rubber-boats, a lovely little dog, two Thomas paddling Indians which may be the Giant-copy size, but later production than them (so French copies of Manurba's version?), a Chinese Villager and . . . the rest - cheers to Chris for the heads-up!

M is for Matters Arising

A few things which got a closer shot or a comparison of one sort or another as this year's show plunder was being put away . . .

A quickie comparison between the unknown cloaked fantasy figure on the left and a Dimensions for Children (DFC) cloak wearer on the right. The unknown one is more sci-fi than swords & sorcery though and I wonder if it might be from the large Toyco set which contains the solid copies of the Colourform space alien figures?

The pilots in close-up, the larger one is a patch above Zang to be honest, and like the better versions of the standing infantryman, has a much neater base, so I think definitely another maker, or a later second version?

Cleaned-up the Airfix bikes; but they're shot to bits! I needed two riders and I didn't have the cap-wearer, so they are useful, and two pairs of blue wheels will prove equally useful at some point in the future I'm sure. I suspect the 'cutter' was trying to make them look more like scramblers, and I may clean them-up by removing the stunted remains of the mud-guards and guard supports

Because they were both to hand as I was putting-away; comparison between the Cavendish (etc.) on the left, and the KT/Shackman et al, novelty plinth/pencil sharpener figure on the right. Cavendish is a stiff 'At Ease', the other is 'easy'!

I thought he'd gone up here already, but I got the left-hand figure a while ago, the one on the right - last Saturday (Sandown tomorrow!), they are the fourth Airfix non-beagle dog, so I now have all four which will go on the Airfix Blog's Bergan/Beton page shortly! I think it's meant to be a Springer Spaniel, which means they are all working/hunting dogs - Setter/Lurcher-Greyhound /Alsatian . . . or; farm dogs.

Three of these are from forthcoming posts on the latest donation from Chris Smith, one was here and five came-in on Saturday. Colour, shade, base marks, copies - the more we find, the more we discover we still had to find! Mostly ABC (or their tool) but there are others!

Two of the figures from PW's show needed the old hot water treatment to get them standing up, one also wasn't shot clearly the other day so I've re shot him here, I suspect another Argentinian figure (silver paint) but more original in the sculpt than the other five which were added to the pile last weekend.

The Jecsan circus (clairvoyant/soothsayer?) figure didn't really respond to the hot water, despite two pouring, straight from the kettle! She stands better, but not flat, the infantry man did much better but needed a jiggit pared-off first.

Well, the blue one didn't clean-up as well as I'd hoped, the black marks seem to be some kind of bituminous splashes which have stained the substrate, so I'm stuck with the 'new' faint ones but he is an improvement on a week-ago!

While the silver one did need a clean, it was only the flash than made him look cleaner, the two other colour ones however have cleaned-up to the point where the flash has rather washed them out! On the left a 5th which was hanging out in the 'TBS Space' tray, from Chris as well I think.

Not quite as nice as the other one, and more Romanesque than Greek (I've seen them online as 'guerrier Grec/Romain', so it's an acknowledged factor of the set), but still a lovely figure, this one has had his replacement weapon blobbed to his hand with glue, at the 'other end' I will drill the hand out as with the previous find.

H is for How They Come In - Week 18 - 4 Sci-fi, Fantasy and TV/Movie-related

We'll start with the Robots in deference to the recent passing of Florian Schneider (we are not the Robots, but you were!) and because I listed Sci-fi first!

They are in many respects (colour, plastic type, sculpting style etc . . .) similar to the Arco Robots, but are clearly NOT the Arco Robots! They have a cavity in their backs which has what appears to be a mounting spigot for something, but no 'somethings' came with them, which in a sample of such numbers you'd expect; if only one, so it may have something to do with the way they were sold, a secondary function (attached to a bigger 'thing' or part of the production process?

Also, as is always the case with these autograndizedmecha's I have no idea if they represent any known license, or which set of characters they might be if they do?

 

Now known to be Bi-Tron rack-toys, issued by Pikit in the UK and probably Gordy International in the USA, they come with a 'space' helicopter/lifting body thing and various micro-armour multi-wheeled AFV's, who's turrets probably go in the holes on the backs of the Mecha's/giant battle-suits, there's also an articulated recovery platform which seems to be lifted from Takara-Tomy's Votom range, seen here at Small Scale World passim.

These are the best! Believe it or not, they are bendies! I have a small bendy bear which I thought was as small as they could get, but these are teeny-tiny bendy! All given three blobs of black paint they cover quite a range with another autograndizedmecha, a more conventional R2BenD robot microwave and home-entertainment system, and a clown! Bargain! Absolute, total, bloody-bargain!

This is interesting; it appears to be a modern dense polyethylene/polypropylene re-issue of one of the old Post cereal-premium bird-men, themselves downsized from the Lido captain video figures we've looked at before?

Given the way old novelty and premium moulds seem to have migrated to South- or Spanish America over the years, I'm guessing it's from there, but it could be French . . . maybe, or a China-made gum-ball machine capsule-prize? Lovely thing to receive in the post, for free!

More conventional territory here, with two bug-eyed 'Martians' and a couple of astronauts, the three to the left being Matchbox Mega-Rigs, the chap to the right being the unknown, like Wing Mau but smaller chap we've seen before, he differs from that example in having a numeral '1' on his base suggesting cavity codes, not pose numbers?

I first sorted this into the animal pile as a nice-looking humming-bird, but a closer look revealed saddlery! When I raised it with Chris, he managed to find some on feeBay and ten minutes later we had this link and the knowledge that they were McDonald's 'Happy Meal' premiums for Epic.

Seems to have been a good film, but swallowed-up by a couple of other blockbusters that summer (2013) and rather forgotten, I'd never heard of it; but I'm gonna' find it on DVD!

Three bits of fun; a Crater Critter from R&L, a gum-ball lion with charm/key-ring loop, I had a loopless one, so that's a useful upgrade and a flocked rabbit, blowing a raspberry, who can stand-up or up-stand! I love this stuff!

A mix of  . . . probably . . . Pokemon and/or Gormiti and/or Exogini and/or Ben10 &etc? It's impossible to follow all these with everything else going on, but there are plenty of sites carrying the information/data, for when it does all need to be sorted for 'proper'! Obviously; a robot dog with a kukri for a tail . . . IS a bit special!

Again, thanks to Chris for all we've seen in the last four posts, there is one item to come in a separate post, but there was plenty more than we've seen just-now, and it will all be sorted away and come back as full sets or in thematic posts months or even years from now as the Blog's still only a few % into the total of 'all-everything' figural!

M is for More of a Ramble than a Return!

We looked at these a while ago here, when I got my main sample, both carded and loose, but since then a few more have joined the 'legion' and more details have emerged which change the narrative slightly, so we'll have a meander through  them . . .

. . . starting with the most recent additions, which are two of the original (except they aren't 'original' anymore!) Legione Spaziale (Space Legion) figures from the previous post; an orange one and a fleck-marbled yellow one, along with two much better versions - in the 'proper' pulp-era metallics!

New ones added (orange asterisks) to the rest I already had, along with a bronze one kicking about and with a helmeted bronze version in the poorer sculpt-finish of the [not] originals, gives me six poses and three generations; poor, not-so-poor with helmet (1) and good (2).

But what we saw previously is only half the story, the better moulded ones are the originals, the poor ones are complete piracies, even down to . . .

. . . the packaging! They are a little bigger and it's a tighter-cropped image, so they appear even bigger, but basically one set - on the left - is a pulp-era set (1950/60's), the other is a cheaper fake (and that's the correct term when you're copying the product and the artwork), designed to look like the original, possibly as late as the mid-late 1970's?

That was sort of 'it', as while I had these two images and was pretty sure that they were mine and that they were the small copies (they are a mix of old Archer and Premier/Tudor Rose poses) I couldn't find them, so I didn't know for sure!

The blue guy is the Premier/Tudor Rose pose; also covered by a company in Australia - if memory serves - in the larger scale.

Then - looking for them - I managed to find two lots, which with the new pair and the bronze 'kicker' gave me twelve, or a small shed-load! Which I haven't photographed as they are only the three poses and the information is in the other images above and below, but I'll show them in the future when I've found all the poses in the better sculpts.

I also found the Christmas cracker prize ones, and another oddity, so thought 'fuck it' and grabbed the Lido (et al) box while I was at it . . .

. . . to get this comparison of smaller 'pulp' spacemen done! We'll look at the helmeted one (unknown I) in a second, while the blue one with an added base (unknown II; ee's 'armless! Or; it's der Milo from Venus!) will be back in the next post, the rest are - hopefully - annotated with clarity?

The Post premiums are the smallest, while the cracker giveaways are heading toward a standard size, the rest are less than half the size of the Archer and Glencoe (Archer re-issues) sets - which we will look at another day, with the originals (a) slightly taller than the copies (b and unknown I).

I saw another of these the other day, same colour, same helmet foxed with a tub of glue-fumes, different pose (but from the six), so I suspect (guess, assume, presume, imagine!) that A) he was/they were possibly a single thing, bubble-gum, cereal, pasta? Something like that, and probably Italy (as per the other two versions) or France, and B) is the original of the multicoloured copies, being ever-so-slightly better detailed, but much worse that the true originals, i.e.; the chronologically second of the three versions, and the first of the two generations of piracies.

So, someone made the original Legione Spaziale and may have given them helmets (which have been lost?) but I've never seen them, then someone-else copied them, with badly or heavily glued-on helmets (which do survive!) and issued them singly (?) as some kind of premium/giveaway or capsule/pocket-money toy? Then a while later; they (or a third party) found (or obtained) the tool (of the copies) and re-released them in candy-colours without helmets (there were no helmets in the big stock-bags from which my previously-seen sample came from) on a copy card of the original Space Legion. But . . . that is all, mostly conjecture?

Ghosts in the machine!

S is for Short & Sweet!

Cobbling the Torgano post together reminded me these had come in a while ago and while we've seen the sculpts before, and only five poses have turned-up so far, they are unusual in being apparently newish, unmarked and soft polyethylene.

The old Lido sculpts variously known as Captain Video, Winco Condar, Patrulla Saturno, Moon Shot, Exploradoes Del Espacio, Missile Patrol, Lunatics, Interplanetary Spacemen &etc.

It's clear there were several tools in various scales and on at least two continents over the years, and clearly some survive as we've had shiny re-issues from Reamsa here at Small Scale World already, but these have the larger bases of the old Lido/'Winco' figures and are - as I said - blank.

Also they may just be a near-mint but vintage shop-stock (they are a bit dusty in close-up) rather than quite as current as they look?

R is for Return to Captain Video et al.

Not exactly a follow-up as the other days post was adequate enough for what it was, but I said at the time that I would re-visit these when I got the rest out of storage, as there are more of the smaller premium sized ones there and a few of the human/spaceman sculpts (I think . . . it's a while since I saw them!), but then I picked these up the other day . . .

 . . . so we might as well have another look at them now! The rest of the Reamsa tinny-ethylene re-issues at the bottom, a duplicate bird-man in rubber, also from Reamsa (top left) next to a totally new one on me, a Heudebert European food premium based-on but reversed from the Lido robot and five of the clunky-styrene or phenolic ones from the anonymous maker of 'Winco Condar's Interplanetary Spacemen!'

So ♪♫♩♬ Meet the gang, 'cos the boys are here, the boys to entertain you . . . with robots an' ail'iee'ens to help you on your way...♩♫♪♬ The 'gang' may be bigger than the storage sample now, but I don't think so and there's still a shortage of the smaller versions and the humans here.

The ray-gun guy in green I 'restored' with a coat of plumbers sealant a while ago can now be seen to be one of the smaller ones though, as he's considerably smaller then the Reamsa, who's brothers are all the same as the Lido/British versions.

The blue cat-man/gasmask guy has his weapons intact as does the new green trident guy (or should that be bident!) unlike their twins.

The above image was originally just the picture on the left, but I think I got one (or two) of my colour-matched cube's wrong last time, so I've added a legend to the right (don't temp me!) which is correct, bearing in mind that those marked Lido could be from any one of several sources (Dumont, Rex, Techniplast), the four Reamsa's may have been issued by one or two other brand-marks (Alca Capell, Puchol) in recent years, and - indeed - the silver robot is so clean he may be a more recent 'pressing'?

As I said last time, without the base marks of the Reamsa or Trovador examples "It's very hard to say with any degree of definitiveness which figure is by which company".

The spare rubber Reamsa is available for a straight-up swap for any of the other three poses if you have one of them duplicated and need this bird-man - eMail me on maverickatlarge [at] hotmail [dot] com. Compared to the re-issue there's nothing in it, they are from the same mould and all four are numbered under the base as per the catalogue listing.

The Heudebert as I say; was unknown to me, and there doesn't seem to be much on that there inter'mah'web-thinggy, he can be seen - or said - to have either had his arms reversed or had his face put on the back of his head, he's also a lot smaller, so rather a 'son of robot'. He's a sharp, 'kit' type, polystyrene like Heudebert flats, in a slightly washy, metallic-gold polymer.