R is for Rack Toy Round-Up - North America - Three is Supernumerary

More rack toy shelfies from Brian Berke, he found all these in Dollar Tree I think, and all figural, with 'Action', stretchy and 'Solid' types to suit most tastes!

 

Wall Walkers, unusual, in being solid, swivel-waist figures, with the sticky 'walking' compound attached as blobs to hands and feet, rather than the more usual form of an all-sticky figurine!

 

Although not a bendy, this guy looks like a perfect foil for the stretchy astronaut we saw a couple of months ago from Keycraft!

 

Generics? Their names all begin with 'M'!

 

Another of the Power Ranger's we saw the black one of, in a previous post from Brian.

 

Disney!

 

I'm not sure how this would work as a Yo-Yo, and I've tried to avoid PJ Masks and Paw Patrol here, but the longer they remain popular characters, the more likely they are to creep into the content from time to time! And I don't know anything about them - are they some male version of Power-Puff Girls?

 

This would find a place in the collection; appears to be a sculptural solid? There's a lot of adults buying toys these days, more for lifestyle signalling/decoration, than pure collecting, and this sort of thing is very much aimed at them, for a mantle or windowsill, or a display cabinet in the hall Monster High!

 

Three-inch, four-inch? Look out GI Joe's, Barbie is looking for a husband and she has expensive tastes!

 

Peppa . . . removed from Douyin (China) due to her association with 'gangster' subcultures and the creation of subversive memes!

 

Many thanks to Brian for all these, there's more to come, probably two more posts, so nicely inside Rack Toy Month, while I think the Gygax Monsters will slide into September! 

TM is for Tactical Missile, Technical Manual, Threat Manager, Trade Mark, Trench Mortar . . .

. . . or Toy Major! In this case it's also for Ackerman, Hornby Hobbies and Dollar Tree, among others, I'm sure!

Bit of a toe-treading on this one, as EY posted these the other day (Mini Carry Case Playsets), but in my defence I had already photographed the six (or five-and-a-half; one's been opened) sealed sets as I sorted them out to storage, but was waiting for the lose stuff to turn-up and a couple of Hornby AFV's I knew I had in the TBS pile to tell the whole story.

Agency on these was the aforementioned Toy Major, with further branding to end user Ackerman here in the UK, in the US the packaging remained generic but the sets were an exclusively Dollar Tree thing? Modern combat, medieval-fantasy and a prehistoric mash-up - Homo's and Dino's together - were the three choices.

The US sets also have limited quantities per case in a little bag, the UK sets (retailing at two-quid in the late-nineties/early-noughties) got a larger sample in separate blister with more play value, which still fit easily-enough in the case; the crinkly-bag was the logistical constraint with the US issues!

Artwork is shared, but photoshopped about a bit to fit the different packaging options, so it was all a question of which format you ordered back in Hong Kong from the TM agents!

Some of the lose stuff, they don't seem too uncommon here, with the odd few in several of the donations from Chris, Peter and Trevor over the years, while I suspect the palm-trees (included in every set) also got a cake-decorating/crafting issue, possibly still extant on Alibaba or something similar, in bulk?

They are quite small, but fill out a war game's scenic jungle well enough and can make good thick secondary jungle in the larger scales. I donn't know why I wrote Toy Masters on the tree-tub, they are a retail toy-chain here in the UK, so I might have bought some of them there?

You can see the constraint placed on content-count by the little bag very well here, with only six monsters ('Dragons') and six figures, each split equally between two colours, you aren't going to get everything in a set, with the British issue that is less of a lottery, although you may still drop one or two poses in one or the other colour-way?

The 'cave men' are copies of late Tim Mee/Processed Plastic's larger figures, although the stone-axe man has been converted to a dagger-man!, the prehistoric hominids are also the exception proving the rule of the others in having only one colour iteration.

The knights are copied from the Supreme 2nd (of three) types, as seen here at Small Scale World before, from several brands and in several sizes, and - this time - you get six poses in silver or black. They fight each other and/or a bunch of whacky creatures which are barely dragons, and not that monstrous, indeed; the unicorn is more of a unicornet and a bit of a sweetie!

Dinosaurs have a five count; relatively crude Dimetrodon, Diplodocus, Stegasaurus, T-Rex'y meat-eater and Triceratops, although its bi-cera's are so small it almost qualifies as a proto-cera'! You can see that despite a tub-full, I've yet to get a loose 'Dipy' in yellow, so all set-contents are clearly random.

As you may have noticed the animals come in/as two paired colourways - green-yellow (which appears commoner) and a mauve'ish purple-orange combo'.

Less than an hour later - there is a fourth caveman pose with club, I thought he was an artwork/pre-publicity thing, but there is one in my sealed set, you can just make out his back! So EY's right and I just don't have  a lose one.

The combat infantry are rather nice, six poses in tan or olive-drab fatigues, reminiscent of similar figures from Revell, Silvercorn/LP or Galoob's 'Micro machines', and original sculpts of some quality. Also reminiscent of Tim Mee/PP's GI's in colour offering, but unsurprising as they - Toy Major - are responsible for a set of Tim Mee knock-offs in the 54mm range.

They are clearly in that time period between the current era and the back-end of the Cold War (sort of 1971-91'ish), vague 'fritz' helmets on a couple can be painted-out, so they will still go well in a Vietnam setting.

None of the sets are currently listed on Toy Major's site, but they are still carrying the larger GI's and one of the many 50mm iterations of Supreme's knights.

The combat figures were also issued in a theHornby train set 'Battle Zone' back in the noughties, and while I thought the cave-men might have been in its sister set; the Jurrassic Park knock-off 'Dino Safari', they weren't . . . the set got a handful of PVC Chinasaurs, but is linked through the AFV's.

Probably a Hornby Hobbies thing, rather than Toy Major, so a tenuous link, but it ties all the loose-ends together, we have seen them before here I think, more than once, but that's how the cookie crumbles sometime.

An M1 Abrams tank lookie-likey with running-gear and hull shape closer to the variable geometry of the predeceased MBT70 program's prototypes (they could drop their noses to enhance the 'hull-down' low-profile aspect) and a rather nice Hummer, which can be found in both sand and drab to match the troops. The Hummer has a removable tilt with very delicate locating-studs which tend to be found snapped-off.

And that heading . . . it also means or has meant in the past - Tape Mark, Target Material, Tasking Memorandum, Task Memory, TeaM (as Tm. or tm), Team Materials, Team Member, Technical Maintenance, Technical Management, TeleMetering, TeleMetry, Temperature Meter, Temperature Monitor, Terrain Masking, Test Manager, "Thanks Man" (or "Mate"), Theater Missile, ['Landsat'] Thematic Mapper, Tone Modulation, [to receive] TeleMetry, TradeMark, Training Manual, Transmission Matrix, Transverse Magnetic [field], 'TROPO' Modem, Type Model, and Too Many [bloody abbreviations!].

D is for Dino III - The Search for Karn...'ivore

I love that title! Sometimes you think of one and you think "Yeah, there's about four levels there!" . . . anyway, it IS the third Dino-post today, the second from Brian Berke over in the Big Apple, and we're looking at the Dollar Tree dino's, most compared to the Dollar General ones we saw earlier today.

These are branded to our old friends and regular visitor's to these pages; Greenbriar/DTSC, who are more widely available I think. Again there are no species given on the sales-tags/labels - I didn't ask Brian if they have monikers on their bodies?

Sizeing with both the previous lot and our trusty Crescent rifleman reveals a larger animal from a similar species, indeed it's almost a scale-up, but there are differences.

Compared to the pretty basic 'Chinasaurs' of our childhood, there are some very good models out there now, and while the real biggies from Schleich, Papo and Co., are very, very good, these cheapies are also excellent sculpts. I think a lot of it is in the skin-textures they give them, think of that WHSmith's set I was buying a few years ago?

The new set runs to seven against the five we looked at earlier and here the 'Tree's are compared with their 'General counterparts, except the Triceratops who is compared to the old Timpo one (which Brain pointed out is as good as a dinosaur 'dinosaur' such is its age!), the new one is a really nice pose, in my opinion! A second meat-eater should be identifiable from the larger arms but is unknown to me?

The two Steggie's are quite similarly posed, but the new one has slimmer limbs, while the Dollar General example seems to be barking! And there's a kerthunkersaurus to finish-off the line-up

Cheers Brain, that Dino's done in RTM, but I've only got a few days to tick the annual motorcycle and paratrooper boxes . . . it's in hand!

F is for Further Follow-up - Rack Toy Astronauts

I knew I had some more somewhere! Because I knew I had some coloured ones, although now they've turned-up I'm disappointed to find no red ones as there were definitely some in my minds-eye, Hey-ho! We've looked at them recently here;

Hing Fat & Generic Astronaut Sets

and here

Follow-up to Hing Fat Astronauts

So there are two 'lots', but they are in one PVC bottle-bag with no header-card and no note, so they were probably either an un-attributable loose purchase, or in one of the dregs bags of the 'big purchase' back in the autumn of oh-ten?

There's not much between them but if I had to commit; I'd say the Hing Fat greys are the slightly poorer finished sculpts? But a situation reversed with the seated figures, where the yellows are very flashy - problem with a/the copied tool?

The pale gray ones share the previously-seen Hing Fat base mark, while the white one and the coloured ones are all unmarked and with no signs of a Hong Kong or China removal, so separate issue with new base-plate or re-ground base-plate? On the subject of quality/finish; look at the spanners.

I'm still looking for the Hong Kong-marked originals, and will look out for more of the minor-sample types when we can return to them again, but not for a few years I think . . . three posts in a couple of months is rather tearing the arse out of it and they are hardly the most exciting of figures; a giant pair of pliers and a fire-extinguisher hose seems to be about as good as it gets!

F is for Follow-up - Hing Fat - Astronauts

Just a quick follow-up to the other day'spost as I have dug-out the loose stuff from the storage lot, a few new poses and some clues, but only serving to confuse!

Three different sets are represented here, of which the one marked 3 above is an additional pose in the confirmed Hing Fat set we looked at last time, complete with obliterated earlier (probably 'HONG KONG') mark and the uneven 'MADE     IN CHINA', as well as the same silver plastic, but not so dark a gunmetal shade as in the set.

The number 1 lot are annotated on the container as being Hing Fat, so, despite forgetting where they came from, or when, I assume they are Hing Fat as someone I trusted must have told me so! They include the seated figure from the Luna Rover we could see in one of the bagged sets last time, and several new poses, along with a darker grey figure (rather washed-out by camera-flash) to the right.

The last figure (number 2) has a variation of the poorer Hing Fat mark but without the scar hiding something underneath.

The number's 1 on the left and 2 to the right; you can see the 2 has a smaller but neater 'MADE IN CHINA' mark than that which we saw on the previous Dollar Tree Distribution set, so a sub-piracy or - as there's little to tell between all these size-wise - a different contract, but probably not Hing Fat, the quality is better than the Hing Fat mouldings so, closer to the originals.

However the Hing Fat's (1) are much better marked than the set we looked at the other day. I suspect these are the re-marked replacement for those, with their scars. It is in point-of fact a font similar to the Dollar Tree set, but with a more rounded type to Dollar Tree's slightly condensed lettering.

With the un-scratched-out Hing Fat 'HONG KONG's still to be found and an almost certain pre-1997 'handover' HK-marked, best-quality original out there, I suspect we will return to these, more than once, but it might take a few years to tell the whole story?

H is for "Houston - We Have Hing Fat!"

Although I'm pretty sure Hing Fat are themselves copies of a set I've yet to obtain and we're actually looking at two makers here the other responcible for unknown generic sets in the style of, shadow of and after Hing Fat! For some reason I've just written Hing Kat twice and had to correct it!

Part of the plunder pile from Sandown Park in May, for some reason (too much stuff to blog and a three month hiatus - two resons!) I've not done the show reports on the last three Sandown's, I might as well wait until next weekend and do all four on the same day!

Two very similar but completely different NASA-type, Moon-shot,  space-themed rack-toys, one credited to Hing Fat the other from a jobbing unknown with a Dollar Tree Distribution sticker. And hard to know which came first as I will discuss in a minute! Artwork on both shares elements and either could have contributed to the Photoshop'ing-efforts of the other!

A 2006 catalogue image of the Hing Fat figures (carrying the 'cabbage patch kids' logo) with a better selection of accessories, clearly a larger bag with adjusted card-art and almost certainly a high price-point than my recent purchase was originally aimed at?

Back to the two recently acquired sets and we find that the figures do differ, only the chap with pliers/snips (far right pair) is the same whole pose, the rest are either different, or slightly changed (middle pair), although both sets are using elements (arm/hand implements/general posing) of the old MPC Mercury/Gemini suited chaps but with chubby, Apollo-suited bodies.

Hing Fat have gone with a Marx flag, while the Dollar Tree uses the common 'pile of dirt' flag, and their set has the added play-value of a couple of blow-moulded rocks (meteorites?) and a small rocket which looks more like an ICMB than an Apollo-programme launcher!

Both marked MADE IN CHINA, with the Hing Fat having evidence of a previous, smaller-fonted, MADE IN HONG KONG mark scratched-out. Now - as hinted at above - I'm sure there is a third source of these, and that the third set is the best set, also wearing a Hong Kong mark and from the early 1980's.

The reason for which is that before I was collection this stuff myself (last ten years) I spent some time helping a well known dealer (as some of you know) and sorted a load of these, and can well remember the Hing Fat bag (from the second image above) being lesser quality that another sample. That other sample (lacking packaging) were as 'cleaner' sculpts next to the Hing Fat as the Hing Fat are, here, next to the (3rd generation?) clones. So there is probably another chapter to today's story, which will have to be for another day!

Dollar Tree's rocket disassembles into four pieces and it struck me that the top section would make an excellent comm's tower/objective in sci-fi micro-armour war-gaming!

From a 1986 catalogue (courtesy of Bill B) comes this image of some of the larger pieces from Hing Fat sets, the shuttle looks to be different to the one on offer in 2006 above but that may just be a question of the cutting-back of paint phases! It's a sub-scale model, while the (Soviet-looking?) satellite is more in-scale with the figures by the looks of it?

I photographed them twice! Doh!

Hing Fat are also responsible for some of the straight-copy MPC clones and again they are not the best quality copies out there, but neither are they the worst. Colour mixes aren't clear but I think one is red, white & blue and the other silver & white.

Z is for Zombie Figurines

Not often we get a descent zed in the tag-list and this one comes courtesy of Brian Berke, from where it's actually zee-for-zombie, but the effect is the same . . . ZOMBIES! These are the ones Johnny Rockets mentioned in a comment the other day . . .

. . . . and currently for sale in Dollar Tree stores over the pond. The set titled Zombie Figurines and at around 54mm they are ideal for all your Zombie scenarios, planed or future! I particularly like the two zombie-dogs, but you also get a pair of gravestones (which will enhance any Deadstone Valley scenes . . . Ed!) and eight zombies (? I'm working off the photographs!) along with a couple of human 'normals' running away.

The two humans are not the best sculpts, being rather caricaturist in the faces and having cartoony bendy-bodies, but the zombies look fine., except the bloke on the far right who is either coming out of the ground (does that make him technically undead rather that zombie? Risen-dead?!!) or dragging a double-leg amputation torso around? He is also a bit comic in his execution.

Brian has started painting his; with the women felling the brush first and by painting the running 'normal' as a zombie he's cleverly hidden the cartoonishness in a layer of mouldy zombie-flesh . . . all very Halloween - thanks Brian!

Carried-in by Greenbriar/DTSC, Shaun had already found them, more pictures and close-ups here.

V is for Vinyl Villagers

And so we get to the last phase/current production of Hornby. These are my least favourite figures from them and also the longest lasting by a far, they are also not unique to Hornby having been issued under various brands at one time or another. Indeed they seem to be aimed at the American Market and I believe they were first issued by Life-Like.

They have always - under Hornby branding - been about the most expensive railway figures to buy (per head) after Preiser, who's figures might also be pricey, but at least give you the satisfaction of knowing you're getting top quality. These are soft, rubbery and slightly blubbery - detail wise - PVC vinyl-rubber, with glued-on rigid bases, probably in a polypropylene.

First appearing in the UK as Hong Kong carded generics (upper image), I well remember one Christmas when our Father was home unexpectedly (he was usually enjoying himself in some bloody jungle full of CT or some mountainous desert full of something equally unpleasant!), he announced a 'Mystery Tour' and we were got up in our best kit by Mum and toddled off the Winchfield station to get the train to London (slam doors and sprung blue stripey seats that swallowed you whole). We thought he was going to take us to the York Rail Museum (that had been a previous mystery tour, and he remains a steam fan to this day). But we ended up in "The most famous model train shop in London", which I can't remember...but it was in an arcade off Regent Street or somewhere eqaully posh?

He then announced we could choose our Christmas presents (we knew Mum had got us a home-made chipboard model rail layout [with gloss blue pond and brown roads) from the local auction house as we'd helped put it on the roof of the Morris Traveller!), and he gave us a budget, it was not large given the mountains of train sets on offer.

We ended up selecting a Hornby blue diesel locomotive with two coaches and some goods wagons, tankers mostly (better crashes if volatile chemicals and fuels are involved - it was a figure of eight track so crashes were a permanent feature!). There was a small quantity of the 'budget' left, and while my Brother had rather lost interest I choose some foam hedges and a header-carded bag of unpainted multi-coloured Hong Kong civilians (that we'll cover another time) and while I was umming and arring I remember also seeing the above card! Long story, short punchline...how it should be!!

Below the HK card are various shots of loose figures showing colour variations etc...note the guy in the straw Stetson and Levi jacket - clearly aimed at the American market, or at least not particularly British.

These figures are still being issued by Hornby after some 30 years, and it would be nice if they would design or commission some new ones, but as they now own or hold the rights to Bachmann Europe who were themselves issuing re-packaged Preiser in new paint jobs here in the Uk in the late 1990's, we'd probably only get more of the same anyway (news on new railway figures here on the blog in a forthcoming 'Product Review' and there may be discounts included?). The larger cards above are the older issues and the small one is the current packaging. The figures are getting a bit long in the tooth and showing their age, indeed the clothing style is 70's rather than the 80's Hornby released them in.

The lower shot shows the only 'new' figures from Hornby recently, sadly they weren't original either, having been issued as 'MADE IN CHINA' carded 'pocket diorama' type mini-sets a couple of years earlier by Dollar Tree and Toy Major  on each side of the Atlantic. They were subsequently issued by Hornby in large play sets, first as Battle Zone (2000) and then a decade later as Codename Strike force (2010), both are still easily available.

A couple more angles on the fritz-helmeted GI's, and the fence units that accompany the farm animals, they again are not typically British in appearance, but are great for Eastern-European villages or ACW stuff! They have a simple peg fit sectional construction and are a manufactured in polystyrene, while the GI's are a modern rigid ethylene/hybrid or propylene.

Reviewing the photograph after publishing - the lying rifleman seems to have a British elasticated helmet cover from the late 80's, the running guy is all Fritz'd-up for eyerack, while the rest seem stuck in a Da Nang time-warp!...and is that a PIAT?

Thanks also go to Bernard Taylor for his help collating info for all these Hornby Triang posts.