H is for How They Come In - Charity Shop Backlog - 2021, 1 of 2

Continuing to clear the charity shop plunder shots, I seem to have kept more up to date in 2023, but there's more from '21 and '22 to come, then I'd better start clearing the shelfies, or the Toy Fair stuff, or . . . !

 

A nice haul sometime in April, with three DVD's (I don't do television, there's little of merit on there now, and what there is, gets reissued as boxed-sets, I've just caught-up on Black Books and Spaced!), a British Museum dinosaur from Invicta Plastics, I have four or five now, and not one paid at evilBay prices!

Two nice WWII British softskin's from Oxford I think, a similar plane, I can't remember the provenance, and it went to storage, with most of this, back then, along with a bag of mostly modern funimals and a couple of Mini Bogglins! And I almost missed the pair of Chinese lions or 'Dogs of Pho', which will mage excellent photo-backdrops/props in the future.

 

A week later and I added another Invicta, being a better version of one we've seen here previously, also as a charity-shop purchase, I think? It turned out they were different shades, so I kept the tatty one for now, too!

 

I left this Schleich skinny Dinosaur (Tawa, issued in 2018) in the bag for now, I assume a blind-bag duplicate, sent straight to charity without being opened! Like Invicta, Schleich and Papo hold their value, however, they can be found cheap in charity shops, but not if the staff use "The 'Bay" to price, then they're all five or eight-quid!

 

Another mixed lot, with more viewing pleasures, some Phidal or Phadal-like (Disney stores?) and a ceramic cat. A bag of small 'ornamental' teddy-bears and I can't even recall what's in the bag, bottom left, but it looks like a mole-penguin-troll!

 

 

A bit of a question-mark over these, I'm assuming some sort of board-game pieces, or even chess-set pawns, it's the snake from the Jungle Book, 'Kaa', and I don't think they have much age, there were both a restored re-issue of the original and a new version released in the last few years, and it will be tying-in with one of them? The 1, 3, 4 numbers are probably just cavity marks.

Finally, a catapult pencil-sharpener and another ceramic cat, probably a fairing, the catapult being a Hong Kong copy of the old Spanish Play Me one.

O is for Oh, Go On Then . . . Have Some Merry Festive Disney!

A few Disney bits which aren't going to make stand-alone posts, or which have escaped previous posts or might have been seen already!

 

From the cannibalised show report from November 2021, I picked this little lot up for a tenner at the last Sandown Park show of that year, which, at less than 75p each, is a bargain, but intrinsically no more than such little pieces of plastic should ever be? Marx Disneykins, most from the general set, but a couple from the 101 Dalmatians set.

 

I shot this on a dealer's stall ages ago, he has a man who 'does' for him, mending lead, antimony or whitemetal parts and breakages, and occasionally he plays with the stuff in the bits bin, and this was the result of one such play!

 

Minutes after I took the shot someone jogged the table and the figure fell, with the head coming-off, so it's now with me, awaiting the magic of superglue, because mending lead is a skilled operation I wouldn't even attempt, slightly too much heat applied to the original piece, and it turns to liquid! Micky says;

"Be nice to the poor in 2024, or I'll re-slot yer' arse wi'me arrows, init!"

Somehow this escaped several posts and follow-ups on the Marx/Wilton cake decorations and similar 'toy town' figures, these are the two sizes of the Babes in Toyland guards, and are both by Marx.

And did we settle this a while ago? This is the commercial version of the pre-production stuff which turned-up in the Dave Pomeroy archive, as depicted on the Minimodels shop-stock boxes. Being Shere Khan from the Jungle Book.

D es para Dos - T es para Tarzans Argentinos!

Bit of a fun post this evening, and quite a few years in the gestation, as the first image (last shot below) was taken back in 2016, with the elephant migrating to the stash a year later, only for me to find the leery one on feebleBay a while back and for it to take so long to get here, there were barely any records of its ordering left in my account profile by the time it turned-up!

 

Here he is, a Tarzan from Argentina, riding Bagheera, whom he doesn't fit-on too well, but as we'll see, he's meant to go on an elephant, and I'm not sure this Bagheera even goes with this set, he's a slughtly better quality in both plastic (can't really go wrong with black!) and painting?

 

Close up's of the eponymous panther, it also shows how Tarzan's knife is joined to his waist for the moulding process. You can also get an idea of the difference in finish quality between the two, if you didn't in the first collage, but I'm looking for filler blurb here!

 

I suspect he actually belongs with the blow-moulded elephant here and/or the Tarzan that came riding it, the left-hand figure in the lower shot, who when I first saw him WAS still on the elephant! Sadly, they got separated, and when I was having a 'look-out for elephants'*, it came home with me, only for the Tarzan to go elsewhere!

However, I had managed to shoot the Ape Man? . . . the Man of the Apes, in a thematic shot with a couple of the Wundertüte figures normally ascribed to Jean, Manurba, Dom or Heinerle, but which I suspect, going on both their material and the paint, are from a still to be identified supplier - as far as I know, no empirical evidence of them being any of the former has ever been shown?

 

But, it (the image) lead to the fortuitous coincidence that I had a shot of the missing Tarzan who goes on the blow-moulded elephant, still in the archive, and he is not the same as the leery one in the upper pictures, indeed I think the heliotrope pink one is a sub-piracy, but the Panther may well belong to the set including this lower Tarzan & elephant, he's just as likely to be from a Disney knock-off set though!?

There's no sign of the missing weapon/equipment (another knife?) being attached to the [probably] earlier figure in the same way / same position, nor are the hands the same, but sculpting of the main folds on the loin-cloth are the same, so copying was involved one way or the other!

OTSN auction shot from the Pielin Brothers' collection, showing the - also Argentinian-made - lead figure, upon which both the above are clearly modelled, along with a snake who's probably a solid, in fact I suspect both might be, rather than hollow-casts?

 

* I often have a mental list of things to look out for at a show, as a default against not finding anything in particular, in the past it has been Romans, anything/everything Fontanini or it might be straw-bales, it's been water-wells, or, as in this case elephants!

H is for How They Come In - London, March, Sc-fi, Fanatsy, Cartoon & TV/Movie Figures

Continuing with the London show plunder, and it's the fictional stuff tonight, slipped over midnight somehow, but I'm a bit bleure this evening, and I don't know if it's a head-cold or overdoing it in the garden and getting a lungful of pollen?!!

Kinder first! We saw my sample of these a while ago now, but several more complete or not so complete have since come-in via Chris, Peter and my own purchases, and I picked these up for a song in London.

 

There's even a spare boot, the sort of bit that's often missing, and while there are only two complete figures (and one of them has the wrong helmet I think), it's about the fun of trying to get four of each boot/helmet/belt-backpack in each of three colours on three or four colours of figure, a relatively unattainable goal unless you're a dedicated Kinder collector!

 

We looked at my small fleet of these not that long ago, but this is a colour variation, with all three landing feet intact, so it came home with me, it's one of the tropes of Kinder to issue the same toy in different or - sometimes - opposite colour-ways.

While this is becoming a bug-bear, I've posted one before I think, shot a few for somewhere else, then had a couple more come in, re-shot them, then this chap turns up and has to go here (ocd rules!), so the rest are on hold again, but by the time I remember them, it'll be time to unify everything and shoot them again . . . properly! Kinder fantasy barbarian in loin-cloth and para' jump-boots!

 

I think these are Esso premiums, and while they are claimed by French collectors, there must have been a UK issue (or issues) as we had some when we were kids, one of my favourite toys going back to when my memories begin is the hedgehog from the woodland animal set.

 

Here we have two cartoony ones on the outside, and two Disney characters from the Jungle Book in the centre, but there were other sets, including the aforementioned wildlife, dinosaurs, Babar the Elephant &etc. They can be described as erasers, but are in fact a silicon-rubber which just smears pencil!

Aaaaaaannnnnnd, we confirm a solving of a mystery! Returning immediately to The Jungle Book, and here's some more painted ones, so anyone whose been following this micro-saga since the sad news of David Pomeroy's passing and the stuff I managed to save, will see this is the evidence that while one of the snakes was a pre-production design, and some of the plastic colours may have been experimental, there are commercial ones out there, as this is the second source/lot to come in along with the Tiger which turned-up so fortuitously and soon after the initial bag of workshop bits.

 

Not only that, but this Mowgli is the fourth I've seen and possibly the third I have, not put with the others [yet] as the other two came in as 'Maybe Marx', years before! And the fact that he has a separate, glued-on, clear base would have kept them separate if this lot hadn't appeared! 

And this might be Disney, might be branded, but I've forgotten even if it's hard plastic or PVC! And it's gone away now; so it'll have to be properly Blogged another day? Obviously a cartoon cat in the style of Marx, or early Heimo, Comic's Spain or similar?

These are current Kinder, and obviously from the recent Avatar II movie, being the two leading characters, I watched a sort of speeded-up highlights/précis thing on YouTube the other day and now don't have a burning need to watch the film, as I know what happens!

Don't know if it's a full set, but I picked-up a few more at the PW show, which are all duplicates I think? And the bottom row here are all second views, so there's only eight sculpts present; two humanoids (previous shot), three sea-monsters (top) and three flyers (middle) with printed fabric wings.

F is for Follow-up - Mini Models Disney Jungle Book

I had this from Peter Evans a few days after I posted the last lot of Dave Pomeroy stuff;

". . . the Jungle Book, there is a drawing on the Mini Models box of Sher Khan. I think this was a proposed range that never went into production- maybe even cereal premiums."

There was more on the Napoleonics but they will get their own follow-up when I shoot the rest, but anyway I messaged him back;

"Pretty much my thoughts on the later, but I did see an orange Sher Khan the other day in an overpriced mixed-lot (took the image) painted like my yellow-one, so they may have been factory-glued and cleared in counter-boxes? Those old white ones with him on it . . . which I'd forgotten, so thanks for all that . . ."

Only . . . it wasn't overpriced, and I had left a bid, which I'd already totally forgotten about when messaging Peter, until the following Sunday when I got a 'You have won, pay NOW you tightarse!' message from fleaBay, only for a mixed lot of mostly shite to turn-up a few days later!

Anyway, this was among the shite (along with a complete Marx Rollykins Dalek!), it's the only one I think I've ever seen, and has the same [white] paint as my yellow one, but with added black eyes and stripes (mostly rubbed-off now), so some kind of issue must have occurred, if only limited, or local to the South East coast? A awful lot of Minimodels stuff has appeared locally, some of it at Reading (Swallowfield bypass) or the A3 car-boot sales, over the years!

And the box, with the tiger on it, which I'd also totally forgotten about was seen on the blog many years ago, here, but only as a very small thumbnail (first image); I wasn't as good at imagery back at the start of the blog, so maybe we'll re-do some of the older posts in the future? Although it's all destined to appear on the A-Z Blogs eventually!

However you can see it's the same sculpt pretty much, so at some point they must have been included in/issued with the standard counter-top box, which is quite small, but would hold maybe two-each of the set? He's lost his tail, but seems rareish, so he'll do for now!

H is for How They Come In - November Sandown Park - Dave Pomeroy

So, I didn't get the Dave Pomeroy stuff I'd meant to in the autumn/early-winter for a bunch of reasons, but I managed to pick it up just before Christmas, probably paid too much for it in the end, but heay! It WAS Christmas and the seller was a nice chap! But I had picked-up a few bits at the last Sandown Park show, which we are looking at now, and we'll look at some other stuff later, but probably much later?

A couple of bits of lead, obviously home-cast, the baby is taken from a set of rubber babies which came in pink or brown and were - I think - premiums of some kind, or early blind-bag stuff? It's all in the files and I can't be arsed to look it up just now! But I have a tub of them somewhere, so a future post can include a comparison with this one.

The Napoleonic head is probably taken from a Historex moulding, and may have been cast for Mr. Pomeroy's own modelling activities, although there is a fair bit of this stuff in the main purchase so he may have been working on a range for Lines (Frog?) or involved with the Airfix 54mm Connoisseur range or Multipose?

Mr. Periwinkle Pennybrix, who, not unsurprisingly was the character-mascot for Tri-Ang's Pennybrix building system, a simplified version of Hestair Kiddicraft's mini-bricks (as stolen by Billund's Lego), with sheet roofing like the contemporary Airfix Betta Builder.

Periwinkle had a couple of pals, Mortimer Mole and Freddie Fox, and above we see a Periwikle which has been part painted, and two Freddies one shot in the same colour as the bases, the other possibly a test shot? In the Pennybrix sets they were all fully painted.

A set of Spot-On's 'Tommy Spot' figures also cast in whitemetal, might be test shots, maybe for further conversion work, there are various cut and filed castings among Pomeroy's stuff, and it's hard to second-guess what was going on, while he was also a hobbyist in his own right, for the fun of it?

From the left we have Tommy's father, the burglar from a police vehicle set, Tommy himself and the Policeman drawing his truncheon and blowing his whistle, both mouldings were also used in a Sweeny* board game by Omnia.

*Cockney rhyming slang - Sweeney Todd  = [the] Flying Squad (of London's Metropolitan Police)

A selection of resin pieces Dave was working on, some we saw last time like the Budda, who might be using a hookah-pipe or a pestle & mortar? I suspect the London Taxi is from a board game, as is - probably - the buglar; was there a non-Sweeny 'Cops & Robbers' type game aimed at younger players?

The Pinocchio is polystyrene, factory-painted and seems to have been removed from a toy/vehicle and may be a rival's finished product . . . Marx Swansea? The policeman looks like those unpainted figures which I suggested were key rings and which subsequently turned-out to be so, but he may be intended to go with the burglar?

Thinking-back; the unpainted key-rings probably came from the same person who gave me the original samples from Dave Pomeroy, shortly before I met him, so that would all tie-in nicely, and suggest Tri-Ang and the Havant Minimodels plant did anonymous contract-manufacturing for third parties? Hardly a surprise - spare capacity, easy cash with no in-house marketing and tax-deductible tooling-costs!

Which leaves the bust? He/she isn't one I recognise from the various cereal-premium sets of the time, so it might be a dolls-house accessory (mantelpiece ornamentation, for the use of), or a counter from a board game - there seems to have been a lot of board-game stuff coming out of Havant?

Now these are a mystery . . . various parts of various characters from Disney's Jungle Book, each of two parts, but not enough parts to do all the characters in each available colour, and not enough parts to do one or two, completely, at all. Also; they're in the style of cereal premiums, but much bigger than you would normally find such things?

There are two Mowgli characters; standing (top left) and walking (bottom middle), with models of King Louis (centre, two colours), Shere Khan walking  (bottom left, three colours (including Bagheera black?) with a painted yellow one), Bagheera sitting (top right), Baloo (three colours, bottom right), Junior (or Hathi Jr., top centre, two colours) and some kind of grinning gopher (middle left, two colours) . . . who is probably meant to be a mongoose? I don't remember him from the movie!

I'm leaving them in the bags for now, as if they turn-out to have been a commercial thing, I'll try to get a few of the missing halves and blog them fully when the sample is better, if not they will still make an interesting post with more imagery another day.

But, on the subject of commercialism; Google just throws up loads of Bullyland/Applause type vinyl-rubber figures, with a Maccy-D's set of kids-meal premiums, as does feeBay, but over there I also tried obvious individuals like Kaa (below) without the 'vintage' to maximise the search results, with no better success, so there's a possibility these were either quite a short-lived thing, or a cancelled thing?

So to Kaa, the snake; where the link to Dave Pomeroy's input is stronger, with a pre-production example which may be handmade? The Malachite-green one is straighter, has finer-etched details and two flat-spots to help him (more recently voiced by a woman!) stand up, while the muddy-jade one seems to have been manipulated with heat; a blow torch or something, and is clearly a stage on the way to the green one.

Imagine a sort of stretched-sprue (runner!) effect, but with heat-proof gloves and a thicker rod of material which seems to have been rolled-together from various recycled polystyrene scraps, with a  thick head-end and thin 'tail', being formed with the application of heat and force! If the green one is the finished article (which it seems to be), it is a single solid molding unlike the two-part press-together 'kits' of the others above.

And, as I say; nothing on Google, nothing on feebleBay and nothing on Cereal Offers, does anyone remember these? Are they or were they common once or are they pretty unique? Were they giveaways/premiums or was there a big-box model kit with simple construction for little hands? They seem (with the exception of the pre-prototype Kaa) to be from [a] professional mould-tool [/s], and any further information would be gratefully received here.

J is for Jungle Jinks

It's a long time since I saw the original film, but those of you with kids or grandkids will know it's still a great favourite on the DVD shelf, and but these are from the original rather than the current 'live action' (read 'GCI') version.

Front and back covers, with a shot of the play-mat; while of limited use whichever set you get, I've mentioned before; some have a game element, some a simple 'play' mat others - as here - get several stills from the movie, so different stories or a progression through each scene can be played-out.

Some of the main characters, from the left; Bagheera (Black Panther), Mowgli (the man cub), Baloo ([sloth] Bear), and a monkey who's name escapes me, but he's a Disney trope, in the books they are a tribe; The Bandar-log or Monkey Folk.

Sheer Khan (King of the [Bengal] Tigers) and two idiotic elephants (Hathi or Tha and/or . . . baby Tha?) I don't really remember, but I was quite small the last time I saw this!

I'm guessing this snake is Kaa, the Indian Rock Python? Although he is a bit too comical for Mowgli's friend and mentor? It doesn't matter, these only really go with similar figures and there aren't many of them, so it's more of a stand-alone sample [with-]in a collection.

The four vultures on the other hand would enhance the larger scale/later painted sets of Lucky Luck from Comansi/Comics Spain, being very similar in style (if not size) with that line's scavenger. Or even as new recruits for the Disney movie Robin Hood character's of the Sheriffs guards from Marx or Tatra! Probably the same cartoonist?

Q is for Question Time - Bagheera?

Just a quick one as we looked at small cats this morning, here's a big one . . .

. . . which I'm sure is meant to be Bagheera. However it could just be a slightly comical black panther, especially as it's unmarked and Disney-licensed stuff is nearly always marked, unless unofficial/knock-off type stuff.

The lack of any marking would seem to rule out Kinder and I think it's  too big for the old Schleich 'mini's and it has painted eyes in two colours, they tended to dot eyes in black, if at all, but/so he could just as easily be a Halloween thing - as in a witches cat not a big cat? Does anyone know who made him?