About Me

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No Fixed Abode, Home Counties, United Kingdom
I’m a 60-year-old Aspergic gardening CAD-Monkey. Sardonic, cynical and with the political leanings of a social reformer, I’m also a toy and model figure collector, particularly interested in the history of plastics and plastic toys. Other interests are history, current affairs, modern art, and architecture, gardening and natural history. I love plain chocolate, fireworks and trees, but I don’t hug them, I do hug kittens. I hate ignorance, when it can be avoided, so I hate the 'educational' establishment and pity the millions they’ve failed with teaching-to-test and rote 'learning' and I hate the short-sighted stupidity of the entire ruling/industrial elite, with their planet destroying fascism and added “buy-one-get-one-free”. Likewise, I also have no time for fools and little time for the false crap we're all supposed to pretend we haven't noticed, or the games we're supposed to play. I will 'bite the hand that feeds', to remind it why it feeds.
Showing posts with label Carlton Entertainment. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Carlton Entertainment. Show all posts

Thursday, January 4, 2024

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.

Wednesday, March 21, 2018

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!♩♪♫

Monday, January 19, 2009

T is for Thunderbird's are GO!

The best lumpy jerky stringed puppets ever! Hell the Americans loved it so much they let Hollywood screw it up with a lousy sequel/movie thing!

21st Century Toys, a company similar to Blue Box but working exclusively in the larger scales and with TV/Movie related stuff produced this, along with plastic models of T2, T3 and Lady Penelope's pink Rolls Royce. This is a bit tatty, but it still works!

This is the approximately 1:48th scale Tracy (Dick? ha Ha!) I neither know or care which, that lives for ever at a time, by himself in a space ship not much bigger than a long-wheelbase high-top Transit van! I hope he's got satellite TV!

These are the figures made for Kellogg's and Tom Smith by Crescent Toys. Lady P and one of the Tracy's are missing. The Tom Smith one's came in a set of 12 Christmas/Party crackers and were available for some time, and seem to have survived in larger numbers than the Kellogg's ones.

The only difference between them is that the base-plate on a three-block mould was changed for each contract. The markings are also inverted on one set, the above is a photograph of two Parker's - both facing the same way.

A few other bits and pieces I had in a tub of general space stuff, the top one is from a recent set of Carlton Toys, I think the Orange one is as well. The small T4 is a modern re-make of the old Dinky toys one, the two at the bottom are some sort of premium, issued about ten years ago to tie-in with some TV/Video/DVD/Satellite/Cable release/re-release/Digital remaster....Oh whatever!

The whole tie-in industry is - to plagiarise the immortal words of Andy Warhol - eating itself, it's got so hard to keep up with the endless issuing of regurgitated pap, wannabe classics, remastered shite, directors cuts and whatever that it's fruitless trying to keep up. Add 'Buy to Collect' or 'Adult Collectables' to the mix and you begin to see why the planet is in danger of being totally destroyed by the wants of needy people and the wish of the marketing men to serve those greed's!