I is for I read Comics!

I know, but we're all allowed a guilty pleasure! I mentioned the other day, I visited Forbidden Planet on my last visit to London, and while it always depresses me (I remember when it was 90% second-hand comics out of corrugated-card cartons, off bare floorboards round the corner, now, it's all shiny Kidult crap! But I managed to find three tomes this time - the last few visits I've left empty-handed!

 

I love these, I got the first volume of Legends of the Guard, as a Library sell-off a few years ago, so I was very pleased to find the second, on a yellow ticket (all three of these were in the 'bargain bin' shelves). To describe this is not easy, but if you imagine an illustrated Silmarillion, but written by mice, about an ancient mouse civilisation, you'd get the picture . . . s!

 

The original/core series (set as if in the present day of the mice) are written by David Petersen, but the various stories in Legends, are from the past of the mouse lands, and are told as tall-tales 'down the pub', with different artists invited to draw, 'ink' and/or letter the stories, which are just absolutely charming, and unlike a lot of my graphic-novel library, are as suitable for kid's as they are appealing to adult readers. If you haven't discovered the Mouse Guard yet, I recommend you do so!

 

This was a bit of fun, as it's a modern 'treatment' of the old movie, using all-new artwork based on the film, rather than the original cells or screen-shots, it was dirt cheap and took about 20 minutes to read from end to end, but the whole point of this kind of thing is the visuals, and they are sumptuous in this, capturing the original, perfectly. "Blue Meanies, Blue Meanies!"

 

I don't know if you are familiar with the concept of Six Degrees of Separation, but this has a close connection to the previous, in that the Den segment of the 1981 Canadian animated movie Heavy Metal, was directed by a Yellow Submarine veteran, Jack Stokes!

 

I first encountered Den in Heavy Metal, the magazine, not the movie, and it's best to say the visuals beat a very confusing series of story arcs, and it helps if you read each story as a stand alone with some similarities to that which has come before, Den being the late Corben's 'Star Wars', going back to his early years, but with less control on timelines or character development!

 

This is the third in a series of [relatively] new collections of all the Den'i'verse, and I'm now looking for the others!

N is for Not Serious!

A few more toy or figure related funnies, and a couple of cats!

 

I believe this is genuine? But not necessarily a retail thing?

 

Ours were old, fat, bald and tattooed, with their brassy tarts holding the ladders!

 

Sigh!

 

Heehee!

 

Rubber jigglers!

 

Let's make death fun! And phallic!

AI from a couple of years ago - it was poor!

Check-out the white lines, crushed cars and dwarf in a pram! 

 

Real, but I don't know which model village?

B is for Big Box of Bounty - Sci-Fi, Cartoon, TV & Movie

And, so, sadly, we reach the end of the Chris's parcel plunder posts, with some very interesting or useful stuff, and some oddities, along with best in box, which might surprise some, but not those who 'get' me! It's all the fictional or funny stuff today!

 

Power Rangers - I think the two micro-vehicles are Micromachines, along with the Putty Patroller, while the smaller articulated chap (in the style of Polly Pocket or Action Fleet) is still unknown to me, although there are some in the bags we didn't look at in this past post, possibly Playmates, or someone like that? While the Black Ranger is from those key-ring capsule toys.

 

These are fascinating, probably from a generic rack-toy, they are somewhere between the Gordy-Pikit rack-toy Bi-Trons and more formal toy transformer types, two points of articulation at the shoulders, and frontal tampo-printing in silver and gold, I'll be looking out for their set on evilBay!

 

Similar fayre; a larger PVC-alike, marked-up to DIC Productions, Playmates and Tsurubaya, so 'Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad', and again articulated only at the shoulders, and a smaller robot, missing a foot (could have one in the spares somewhere, from non-branded versions, or a similar Kinder type plug-together?).

 

The 'Free Comic Day' over-print is referencing an extant 'thing', the next date, is this coming May (2026), so I guess this was a promotional or freebie associated with that event, in the past. The event seems to be active in the UK, but the outfit behind it is based in the USA.

 

A fine selection of Manzingers, Grandizers, Transformers and/or Decepticons . . . or other things entirely! On the left is a stamper, with the design on it's base underside, at the back are two of the pencil-tops, which may form the follow-up to this post, while in front are two of the little mini's issued in the US by Ace Acme, but probably found over here as either capsule toys in gum-ball machines, or Christmas cracker prizes?

 

While the pair to the right are more traditional Keshi, with one 'proper' marked one (in the flesh-pink polymer), fully deformed, and one bootleg, almost certainly from gum-ball capsules, in blue.

 

OK, so, best in box! But first, the others . . . Three at the back may be from a short-lived toy line called Battle of the Planets (?) or something similar, each fold-open planet came with a handful of aliens associated with it, then we have two role-playing war games figures, one marked Grenadier (on the left) and numbered A 588, which I just cannot find on the Lost Mini's Wiki? The other, half-painted, looking like Minifigs? To their right are two marked Mega Bloks, from a line which has escaped me; I know of the little submariner figures, but these are fully-based stand-alone space/alien types?

 

Which leaves the two little 18/20mm blobs! BEST IN BOX! Against all the other contenders (the four sailors, the putty-coloured guy with the charm-loop, the lovely Napoleon on horseback, the two kneeling khaki infantry . . . ), and the reason is this;

 

I have two already, although I didn't realise it. I have one similar to the red one here, which is in the unknown GI's, as a presumed 1 or 2 cent/pence gum-ball prize, and I have a more obvious female space figure in pink, which is halfway down this page, and kept in the unknown space zone, now I know they go together, and there's more to find!

 

With a robot type and another GI 'space marine' here, I now have four in three or four poses (my blue one may be the same as this red one?)! Does anyone else know anything about them, have you got a bigger sample? They are all very clean, so maybe not that old, but I've had mine for over thirty years? Again, possibly cracker novelties over here, and maybe the small tree-crackers, at that?

 

I thought the finger-puppet was a new, fourth pose, but it's a duplicate, so may be a candidate for future painting, and I had hoped to have a fourth pose in the follow-up, as I found one in gold-paint, days before Chris's parcel arrived, but can I find it again? Can I hell, I'm sure it's in Picasa somewhere, and I've poured over the dozen or so folders it should be in, but I can't find it again, so it'll have to wait!

 

The dull yellow one is a Pokémon I think, and was found towing the French wagon when I opened the box, I have no idea on the bright yellow chap, who's been rather washed-out by the flash (Ben 10?), and the other has been seen before, here at Small Scale World, and is a rubber-jiggler, best described as a duck-billed platterpenguin! He wouldn't stand up!

 

Marked Bandai, I know nothing else about the gold winged chap, the robot is from the Buck Rogers eraser set, through which, upon Blogging here a while ago, we realised Bushy the Coppice really had started his counter-blogging nonsense!

 

The tall guy, looking a little like Moorcock's hero Elric of Melniboné (in a blazer!)  is probably a relatively recent Gashapon figure of some Japanese TV 'anime'? While the figure on the ground is . . . 

 

. . . looking like a Star Wars knock-off of Princess Leia? She's either a poorly-moulded short-shot, or another of the sand-washed beach finds, I think that Deetail Arab, in an earlier post, was, and she may go with that set of green knock-offs which were posted around the Internet about 15-years ago; were they South American, or Japanese?

 

Cartoony bits include a Jolly Jumper, faithful mount of Lucky Luke, most of a Gantoy knock-off of Muffin the Mule, missing his nodding head, he's a first sample, so stays! The weird doll-thing is looked-at below, while the pig is from one of those pre-Kinder, Hong Kong, novelty animal families.

 

We've looked at the rabbit as a teaching aid, and the orange-red blob is a Mini Bogglin, there's actually a huge bag of them in the stash somewhere, so they will get a proper post one day, but it's not a priority here!

 

This 'doll', I've seen before, that chap who was doing the beach-combing displays of polymer-shite washed up in the West Country had one, less this weird one-piece, clip-over, romper-suit, like this one his was missing its head, so your guess is as good as mine, but numerous enough to be known by some - are you one of them?

 

Manta Force from Bluebird Toys, figures and robots, I think these are the 'bots attached to the sides of one of the larger toys in the range, as they are mostly missing their bottoms (tracked units), as they were interchangeable, in that larger set.

 

Two seasonal house-burglars and a Kinder gnome, I think the one on the left is all new to me/collection, not sure on the gnome, it was a multi-issue line which ran for several years (most of a decade?), so there are a lot to find, and I do have lots about the place, but I haven't brought them all together, or compared them to the Sammler Katalog's, yet!

 

Two Matchbox, late production (Universal) on the left, a Bluebird Havok needing a base on the right, and one of those odd rack-toy 'Walker' pilots we've seen here, along with a Dr. Who viral robot 'Cybermat', actually in a much larger scale, but useful!

 

Two characters from Pif Gadget, the French kid's comic, here manufactured by Brabo, but similar figures were issued by others including Yolanda, a Micky Mouse pencil top and a Donald who looks to be almost certainly Xandria from the Netherlands? He's seen better days and all four could use a clean, but a sample is a sample!

 

Many, many thanks to Chris for all this autumn's fine plunder, he doens't have to do this, and it does all provide answers (the 'Best in Box' for instance) as well as new questions, and with so much to find, it's only the help I get from Chris, Peter, Trevor, John, Adrian, Gareth and co., which helps us all, to get to that ultimate bigger picture.

N is for Nuts!

While sorting out the house over the last few years, various things came to light which had long been forgotten, among which was this childhood stash of paperback-format bound volumes of Peanuts cartoons by Charles M. Schulz.

 

And then I found another one!

 

We were early fans of Snoopy and Co., and it was always Snoopy, it was Adults who thought of Charlie Brown first, because he represented the trails, tribulations and failures of adulthood, Snoopy was just a funny dog who thought he was a WWI fighter pilot and talked to yellow chicks, who coded back in scratch marks!

 

My brother and I had a shared bedroom until I was sixteen, and when we were little, there were loads of snoopy posters on the walls, similar to these book covers, a single image and some pithy aphorism about not liking Mondays (a decade before the Boomtown Rats), or something. Except they weren't actually glossy coated posters, they were matted wrapping paper!

 

I can't remember where we got them, but I guess it was WHSmith, in Fleet, or maybe Webb's, in Hartley Wintney, folded-over their wooden bars, you'd keep an eye out for a new colour, as like the book-covers they were single-colour sheets with a black-on-white snoopy, the paper an off-white, and about the same paper grade of brown parcel-paper, which they were near. I guess the idea was you used a whole sheet on a big-box gift, and the unwrapper got a cartoon! And, or course, they were much cheaper than the posters from the wire racks!

 

I seem to recall, Coronet, the publishers, also supplied a fair-few of my sci-fi novels a few years later! 

 

I also found these! Because we spent all our holidays running about on Hazeley Heath, climbing trees, shooting at each other with airguns (nope, we've still both got two working eyes!), from the tree-house or similar shenanigans, we tended to wreak havoc on our trousers (jeans or cords), and Mum would cover the holes (knees or bums!) with these patches, to give them a little more life. There were others, some more 'hippy' and I found a bunch of them too, they'll be a future post!

G is for Gygax Monsters - Part I - Introduction

The 'Monsters', with dinosaurs and the odd prehistoric mammal, actually came before Garry Gygax nicked them, or their designs for his fledgling monster list, published as a guide to his Fantasy Role Playing system; Dungeons & Dragons, which predates the Nottingham Mafia's Wotzit-40,000, by years (indeed, GW were involved with D&D at the very start), and specifically, the 'Advanced' (AD&D) version.

 

Originally a hardbacked volume on soft low-density paper, like comic/TV annuals of the time, the frontispiece carried an illustration of my favourite, a mutated kerthunkersaur, which, due to Gygax's adoption of it, has become known as the Bulette, which presumably must be said in an outrageously put-on comedy French accent, or Belgian, like the Policeman from 'Allo 'Allo! ?

 

Other people have done most of the legwork on this one, so have a gander at these links for a better story and background than I could rehash here; 

 

Wikipedia page on Gary Gygax 

 

Wikipedia page on the 'monster manual'

Gygax story on Tony Di Terlizzi's page

 

More on DM David's page

Gygax didn't use all the monsters, nor the accompanying dinosaurs, but alongside the Bulette, he would christen two others, the Rust Monster, a mutant crustacean, and the Owlbear, which defies description, but was clearly meant to be a Prehistoric Mammal, in the vein of Timpo's Megatherium.

 

Later versions of the book were actually a loose-leaf folder/binder, and I'm not sure how complete mine is, as I don't seem to have shot the Rust Monster from either tome, but these were all taken some time ago and have been sat in Picasa since March '23!

 

I don't have an Owlbear yet, so we won't see many through this series of posts (which I'd forgotten were nearly ready, and are very 'rack toy'), and no, I’m not going to pay $500+dollars for something Hong Kong and ephemeral, which will eventually turn-up in a mixed charity lot for 50p or a couple of quid, max'!

 

These both share features of some of the other models found with the three Gygax Monsters, and the Glabrezu is very close to several, but has, here, been given two extra arms!

 

It wasn't just Gygax who used the toys though, and this Gold Key comic-book cover for Dagar The Invincible (shades of Trigan Empire or Burroughs' John Carter?) from 1972, uses one of the non-Gygax 'Gygax Monsters', if that makes sense, and we'll be seeing it in the subsequent posts of this series.

 

Really? Because I used one Gold Key image, in context, for another subject altogether; small plastic monsters, you published, the next day, a whole pageful, garnered from all over the internet, in an exercise in quality plagiarism! You might as well climb to the top of Mount Everest, with the largest bullhorn known to man, and the largest loudspeaker, and shout "I'm really insecure!" at the whole world, 'cos that's what you just told us!

 

Some Bulettes, probably three Holly Plastics on the left, a later (?), smaller copy in 'aqua' and an even smaller sub-piracy to the right, but all five have the same treatment vis-à-vis paint application, and eyes, as well as similar gate-marks and such like, which is important, as while there will be six or maybe seven posts (hopefully by the end of the week!), the narrative isn't clear and many answers will remain.

 

I suspect that rather like Tai Sang, with their many farm and zoo animals, as early generics or later under Blue Box, Redbox and Sunshine Series etc . . . Holly may well have had more than one production line, or factory, or farmed some of the work out, to mates, or other enterprises, with duplicate tools, or permissioned copying, to fulfil orders?

 

This is my sample as at 2021, with the Lik Be (LB) minis in the top left corner, and most of the rest conforming to the general look of Holly Plastics, however markings are different and that's how they are sorted for now. You can see (it's not the best shot, and Picasa is currently refusing to open it?!) that most of the output is more conventional dinosaurs, and ones we have seen here before.

 

The big bag, bottom centre, for instance, is basically the same contents as the set Bran Berke found for a previous Rack Toy Month, years ago, in a seaside shop in Blackpool (I think, I did ask him, but it would take too long to find the eMail!), and were, therefore still around until quite recently, while others have had an over-marking, or re-marking with 'China', since the heady days of the 1970's.

 

Here's a mixed lot, also looking like Holly with no Gygax's, but it does carry the full size versions of the two mammals, also copied by LB as mini's, in the prehistoric set we saw here, while the arrow-headed amphibian (Diplocaulus) to the far right is another one (like the Owlbear) which seems harder to find than most of the others, suggesting a tool was lost or damaged, or lost a couple of cavities, early in the full set's run?

 

Awesome Kids recent'ish set of Britains Deetail knight knock-offs, with four of the 'winged wisker' monster (Glabrezu), upon which the artwork for the above Dagar #2 comic may have been based (there are three very similar sculpts, none of which Gygax used), so some of the tool's cavities are still around, even if the whole set, or most of its parts, are lost, or, just lost on a shelf somewhere?!

Again, no Gygax types, and while you might think this to be a generic for Woolworths or Littlewoods, the old catalogue people, they had 3-spot ladybirds, for the famous clothing range, until recently, while the equally famous, or even iconic Ladybird Books had a 7-spot, so I guess this was just bandwagoning, and I think they might have been in WHSmith around '78/79? But I'm not sure why I think that?

 

Anyway, there's lots more to come, and hopefully it will all start to fall into place, or at least, make a little more sense by the end of the week. So: not really 'Gygax' monsters at all, but always going to be Gygax Monsters now!

F is for Follow-up - Dragonbird Whirlyflies . . . Well, Actually, 'Helicars' & 'Helijets'!

Just got in from work to find this treasure in the inbox from Brian B in New York, on the subject of Sikorsky S-51's (previous post, below) and their relationship to Dan Dare! In his own words:

"It was delightful to see the blog post on Tudor Rose helicopters, as I coveted them as a kid but never owned one. 

I remember being aware of the S51 from the movie 'The Bridges of Toko-Ri'

When Frank Hampson created the world of Dan Dare in Spacefleet, he based the helijet on the S51.

When I built my train layout 'Northern Heights', London in the 1950's, I had to have a hint of Spacefleet so adapted a model of an S51 into a Helijet, just as Frank Hampson did."

And obviously that's what I was remembering when I mentioned Dan Dare in the other post, you can see where Fairy were coming-from with their Rotodyne too, and the similarities betweens names and designs extends to the IM 'Rotorship'.

I really love the conversions of railway figures (?) to Spacefleet personnel, including two Treens! From the left I think we have Dan, Digby and Sir Hubert Guest, arguing about how to do the dangerously impossible, and save the World . . . again!

Cheers Brian, a real treat!

Two hours later - Brucey Bonus as the rabbit-hole provides!

https://downthetubes.net/unearthed-early-dan-dare-designs-by-frank-hampson-inspired-inspired-by-innovative-1950s-inventions/

T is for Thunderbirds Are Gone!

In fact they went just over a year after they started, I'm referring to Thunderbirds Are Go, a magazine which became, quite quickly, a subscription 'partwork', but which failed at the first hurdle - lasting a year!

Blogged by Moonbase at the time, so I held-off on my own purchases, but I'd got in at the start and predicted in a comment over there that it would peter-out after a while, with lower-value gifts and/or Thunderbirds-stickered (or printed) generic novelties, which is pretty much what happened, with a secret-code message booklet, Parker's 'cockney phrase book' "Shall I do the Berkeley, Mairy Pop'uns?!" or a tuppence-worth of vac-form mask, of the Hood's face!

 

But the early issues ran through the vessels in a '1:no constant scale' size model, I think there was a larger T4, but I missed it, and it'll turn-up loose at some point, if there was, I'm absolutely sure about that!

 

Probably the nicest was the T5, Space Station for onanists, which came as a kit of pre-coloured parts with a small sticker-sheet and therefore had a lot of inbuilt value-for-money, easy to build, it would be useful for all that micro-space wargaming some indulge in? "That's not a moon, it's a pocket-money trap!"

The flying Stalwart! Based on the TV reboot, the vehicles aren't quite as bad as the execrable movie, but nevertheless, they ain't the originals either, so not sad to see them die, a story which was told at the time over on Down The Tubes;

 

https://downthetubes.net/dc-thomson-cancels-thunderbirds-are-go-magazine/
 

What I managed by way of a collection, the T1 and T3 are relatively unchanged so why fuck-about with T2, which was everybody's favourite? Except for the big girl's blouses, who liked FAB1! I don't know if there was a FAB1 in the . . . 14 (?) issues!