F is for Follow-ups - Recent Bits

When Chris Smith sent his parcel a couple of months ago, I told him I'd seen another of those finger monsters, a day or so before, and then spent ages looking for it, real rabbit hole stuff, in the end I went through most of the near-thousand folders in Picasa, thinking I must have moved it by mistake (sometimes you pick something up, absentmindedly, on the cursor and dump it elsewhere, without even realising it, on the way to somewhere else!), only to find it the other day, in the short or 'this year' queue, in a possible post on an exhibition!

 

Definitely a forth sculpt/pose, and if the paint-chips are anything to go by (almost certainly home-painted), this one is yellow plastic, which reinforces my - still possibly false - memory of a brown one? And obviously some kind of Kaiju from the Godzilla or Ultraman franchises.

 

From two different show reports, the Reliable figures and probably Reliable side-by-side, the standing shooters look different, because the foot-plug on the older version is not fully pushed-home, but I lined them up, and they are almost identical, even down to the long, adjustable iron-sight, over the breach, so clearly they just added integral bases changing the tool from a two-part to a three-part mould.

 

And thanks to Anonymous for highlighting the link, in comments, I was using the Way Back Machine version of the now defunct Ponylope as a guide!

 

Also from recent posts; show reports and donations, we've seen three of these recently in two posts, the others earlier in the year, brought together, you can see the two sizes (bigger pair on the right), to which can be added the several base marks, which I previously highlighted.

 

When combined with the couple of dozen which have come in over the last three-or-so years (get-at'able in storage), it will give an even better picture. While the master collection, buried in the container, which also includes the big ones, when all the new ones are added to them, will be the basis of a much better overview, one day.

 

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In this post;

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2025/02/t-is-for-two-roarsome-rack-toys.html

 

We saw a metallic dino'bird/pterosaur kind of thing, which bore little resemblance to the other four on the card-back, but separately, and also from BJ Toys, I've been picking these up at petrol stations, namely the Esso outlet at Tongham/Hog's Back, and Bordon's BP station!

 

Plant spider!

 

Reverse colours.

 

Balrog's horns on this one!

 

The trouble is, they seem to appear one or two at a time, in a large counter display carton on the bottom shelf of a dedicated/custom BJ Toys sales display unit, mixed-in with an assortiment of other novelties, so I don't know how may there are, or whether they all have reversed colour versions.

 

And if you think this link is tenuous, for a follow-up - I thought I'd already posted one! But they were in two folders, with the other not photographed, so I was happy to find the Dino-phoenix, looking for the non-posted dragon! The point being, I think they are from the same source, not BJ; in China?

 

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On the subject of ducks,

 

The two vintage British plastic foul, one from Peter and one from Chris (pretty sure I have another in pink, or a maroonish-purple somewhere), brought together with the TK Maxx crayon ducks and a generic CHINA-marked goose from a rack-toy bag/toob/tub, for scale.

 

Similar, but simplified toys from Sonsco of Hong Kong, again I have several of these in various colours, including a fluorescent pink one which is just as leery as the green one in this set!

 

And on GI's,

 

This set of re-issue ex-Marx figures, being a mix of different sets, has the chap, both Chris and me thought "looked like Marx?", middle-top, and, sure enough, he was a Marx sculpt!

 

But I'd totally forgotten that Chris sent me this shot ages (six years) ago, when discussing something else, probably wanting it to feature in a Question Time, so, to repeat the earlier question, we know the re-loader is a Marx pose, now, but can anyone give a maker/brand to this marbled maroon-brown chap, and B) does anyone know anything about the figure on the left?

P is for Post Office . . . Rack Toys!

Specifically, the Cranleigh Post Office!

 

For those loyal readers who aren't aware of the fact (which is probably most of you), Cranleigh is a rather smart villagey-town in an equally smart corner of Surrey Hills, a 'stockbroker dormitory' for those who 'come down' from London at the weekend, in their shiny, black SUV-4x4-Crossover wanker's tanks, and where they park their trophy wives and Eton-bound brats!

 

It also serves some of the smartest villages and hamlets you'll find, like Plaistow, and the 'folds (Ifold, Dunsfold (home of the Hawker Harrier*) and Alfold) and is known to describe the feeling of "A mood of irrational irritation with everyone and everything." from the little-black-book The Meaning of Liff by Douglas Adams and John Lloyd, a surprise, comedy, Christmas-hit, decades ago, now, which was contemplative reading in our loo for years, and rather sums-up those stockbroker residents! Indeed, the less kind might accuse me of suffering chronic Cranleigh! I would - of course - point to the bell-curve (and what's happening in America right now), and argue it's not irrational.

 

* I served in the TA for a while with a Mr. Boxall who was in the paint shop at Dunsfold, and used to do all the markings for Hawks and Harriers, new and refurbishments! I don't know if he did the Red Arrows, but he told of the flurry of activity during the Falklands crisis.

 

Anyway, I have been driving round there, for work, recently, and saw a sign behind the trees in the main street saying "Balloons & Other Novelties", and thought that sounded interesting, so made a mental note to return, on a day-off, when it (which turned out to be the Post office) was open, and did so! Finding a quite well-stocked corner of cheaper toys, gifts, craft work stuff and, yes, novelties!

 

This is what I found;

 

The latest iteration of the set of six largish, but cheap dinosaurs we saw here under several brands about eight/ten years ago (Poundland, TKMaxx, 99p Stores and others), singly or in threes. Currently wearing Kandytoys moniker, and I think this is one of the second paint versions, we saw last time?

 

This was actually branded TKM, so must have been a bulk purchase at some point, from, probably, Home Bargains? A nice set of larger animals for those who collect such things, the elephant is nicely sized for conversion to a 25mm war elephant, but I'm not sure why the lioness is a completely different colour from the lion!

 

This was HGL (Grossman), and goes well with my British Museum ruminant Sauropoda (future post!), it is what it is, but collaged poorly due to its dimensions!

 

This is the 'other' Alien illustrated on the card of the Whitehouse Leisure one I found in Stansted the other week (https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2025/08/r-is-for-recent-rack-toy-roundup.html), without the Elf's ears, and while I didn't look closely on either occasion, and got both sculpts out of two purchases by pure accident, I think it can be assumed both come in both brandings? This is also badged Kandytoys.

 

I left him in the slime for now, as it has a heat-sealed lid, like a milk carton! The cap, however, is a whacky, LED-embedded, screaming-loud, multicoloured UFO, which is operated from the button on the top, but with a sealed-unit battery, won't last forever! It adds to a growing fleet of mini flying-saucers!

 

It was mostly dinosaurs though, and here another from a set of, err . . . several, each of which has a mini-saur in a decorative egg! I only got the one, to help with future ID'ing, and it shares branding with both Kandytoys (the reused sculpt above) and 'Jurassic Era', but is a new sculpt as far as I know

 

As do these (share the brand/brand-mark), but which, again, I think we saw years ago, as generics or in Pucator branding? These were cheap as chips (not that chips are that cheap these days; even a child's portion can be a fiver!), so I bought two, and will un-dig one of these glow-in-the-dark dino-skeletons, one day!
 

Heading back, I dropped into Borden to check the Poundstretcher for those Supreme knock-off Wild West sets - they hadn't had a re-stock, so no Cowboys (they were in the bigger set we looked at a few years ago), and instead I left with this soft-vinyl, metallic dry-brushed, Sci-Fi/Fantasy, robo-stego-dragon, for something daft like 70p? Bargain! And ideal for figures between 20-40mm.
 

Right, I've got a week or so to fire out as much rack-toy stuff as I can, and will try to make an effort!

KTL is for Kandy Toys Limited - 2025 Spring Fair

Funny, isn't it? I had a good rhythm going, got a bit of a head-cold and some writer's-block on the previous post, and then, when I'd finally posted it, went down with something far worse, on the details of which I will not regale you, just in case it's breakfast-time where you are, but it took me out for nearly a week, and I was really quite ill, in a way I haven't been for many years.

 

Probably not since I was delirious with Gastroenteritis as a teenager and the motorcycle posters on my bedroom wall, started chasing me round the room, while the GP was trying to take my temperature! My 61st also slid-by in the last few days, strangely more of a milestone (mentally) than the round 60, last year?

 

Anyway, this is the second of the Kandytoys posts - they write it both ways and seem to be building KTL as a brand mark, presumably to compete equally with the rival HGL and HTI marks, although they are pretty freindly rivals for the most part, and always stall-out near each-other at these big trade shows.

 

Pretty much the same stuff as last time, but there's a load of new space items in this post which weren't in the inventory two years ago, and everyone likes new images!

 

Not 100% sure on these, some confusion on photo-order, but I think I shot them on the way back down the other side of the aisle, however someone else definitely had them, and they will be in another post, they are 3D printed stock, in both (?) cases being bought-in from a/the same 3rd-party?

 

You can find plenty of YouTube, TikTok and 'Reel' type shorts of this stuff being printed, it's clever, but it's automated and after some interest/involvement in the original conversations on the HäT forum, back in 2007/8, I will not post much on the subject, as it's almost limitless in its scope, whether one is talking about subject mater, plastic type or scale.

 

Indeed, one of the points I made in those distant (and long-ago deleted by 'H') threads, that it would eventually end the toy industry, seems closer to the truth. Literally it's infinite, and while I like seeing the odd bit, I'm not going to look at it here with any regularity, maybe the odd figure/vehicle, occasionally?

 

But these are quite clever, in that the fully animated model is printed in one piece, and with a few twisting clicks of the moulding, becomes the modern equivalent of those old wooden snakes or alligators which were glued to a central strip of leather, or the hinged, tin-plate fishes.

 

Timeless classic, I grabbed a couple more the other day somewhere, and they went straight to storage, but we have looked at them before, and there has been a follow-up brewing in Picasa for a few years, with contributions, so at some point . . . ?

 

Pulled-together under the Star Voyagers branding, there would appear to be the products of two or more lines here, and while the figures are a bit cartoonish or infant-toy in style, there are some useful vehicles and accessories in the sets. And with Padgett (A-Z) carrying a similar range, it's clearly a trend!

 

The traditional 'army men' are a bit thin on the ground these days, but they do turn-up from time to time, the upper ones are Matchbox copies (green) and those seen over the years in Poundland and the defunct 99p Stores, which Mark (Man of Tin) works his magic on (orange/charcoal), in both cases 35/40mm types. While the lower set is a more conventional 'battle in a bag'!

 

I had mixed-up images back in 2023, and only realised when sorting these out just now, so I've whipped a section out of the '23 Padgett post and added it to the previous (below this one) KTL post, also from '23, and now it all makes more sense! The additions are the upper-shot, Transformer knock-off T-50/60/70-somethings which convert into Autobot types!

 

Mostly larger size farm stuff, I know there's little interest in these from even loyal readers, but it all needs to be recorded for posterity, and to help ID the stuff when it comes in loose, a huge series of jobs awaiting me in my final home, with be the naming of the farm, 'Zoo' and Dinosaurs!

 

And, speaking of Dinosaurs . . . 

 

. . . smallies!

 

Biggies, seen before here, under several brands,

singly (boxed and in counter display boxes), in pairs and triples!

 

Biggies with eggs!

 

These will be in a forthcoming post, held-over as the last of the catch-up sequence from February, because I knew Kandy was coming! I'd bought a set, last Autumn, out-and-about, and then Peter Evans gave a couple more to the Blog, so there's a nice overview of them, next post, probably. Medium-sized.

 

Larger, and older/vintage mouldings by the look of them?

 

Tubbed playsets, medium/small.

 

Medium-large, just the three?

 

Another set of smallies, different to the widow-set above?

 

I haven't seen these out-and-about yet, but I have a feeling we may have seen them loose, so it's a case of retuning to them one day, fully ascribed!

 

Pretty sure I bought all four of these, just as I was moving into the flat, ready to sell the house a couple of years ago now, hard to believe this crap's been going on for four years-plus now! I don't know if I Blogged them, pretty sure I shot them, so, I'll have a dig. Each set has a subject-related head moulded-on to the toob's cap!

 

Various selections/formats of wild/zoo animals, sea-life and more species-specific stuff (lizards, cetaceans), including streatchies, jellies, insects, and a few dragons at the bottom.

 

Definitely the set which includes two of the creatures sent to the Blog by Jon Attwood, one of which I had a duplicate of, with the wings set at a different pose/attitude, seemingly deliberate, possibly a change made in order to allow more units per counter-display carton? There seem to be five to collect, but it could be ten, if they all got their wings moved!

 

Finishing up with the huge 'soft-play' squeezy, but not squidgy dinosaurs, I think I've previously shelfied such stuff in TKMaxx or B&M stores? And as mentioned a closer look at the blister-carded Dino's next, and hopefully I'm back posting again, for a while!

KTL is for Kandy Toys Limited - 2023 Spring Fair

I can on occasion get a bit confused between Keycraft, Kinder and Kandytoys, not less than when glancing at marks at a show, but they are all slightly different in their output, except when it comes to Kandy and Key both doing Chinasaurs.

 

Kandytoys (now also KTL) who have been around for a while now also have a newer subsidiary in My Toy (now M •Y), and with both being based in the West Country, one feels they probably benefited from the demise of Marshall's down there, a few years ago?

 

Anyway, I've shot a lot of stuff at this year's trade fair, but I also shot a few bits, two years ago, in my rushed afternoon hour or so, so here's the older ones first! There is some duplication, but, you know; different angles, assortments, viewpoints etc . . . it all adds to the whole!

 

'Army Man' stuff, the green figures look like the Henbrandt boxed set, the bi-coloured set looking like the ones Poundland was carry for many years in various formats and plastic colours.

 

Push and go and freewheeling vehicles/AFV's.

 

Wild Animals and individually packed small Dragons.

 

Larger Dragons, ID'ing two sent to the Blog by Jon Attwood I think?

 

Counter display of biggies!

 

I got these a couple of years ago, but I don't think I Blogged them?

 

The rest of it was all kinds of Dinosaurs in all kinds of packaging and all sizes . . . 

 

The ones on the left we've seen before under various brands.

 

Coming soon as a separate post!

 

'Soft Play' giants.

 

Lego-likey minis!

 

And if you think there's a paucity of blurb on this one, I opened the 'new post' about four or five days ago, added the title the text day, added the pictures a day later, added the opening blurb a couple of days ago, and then sat and looked at it, like a rabbit staring at the car bearing down on it, There's only so much you can say about this stuff sometimes!