EMCE is for Effigy Manufacturer Confirms Events

Back in December I received a nice eMail from Joe Sena, on the subject of the little output/figure list I appended to one of the earlier EMCE posts, a subsequent back and forth of correspondence produced this pocket/potted history of the various brands I had been getting confused by, so - with Joe's permission - here it is for those who may be interested;

 

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"After a 10 year period in Los Angeles, where I helped grow the merch side of a large Star Trek convention company in the early ‘90s as designer/creative director, I moved over to the New Media Group at Universal Studios where I went from writer/producer to Creative Director in a few months – largely because in the mid 90s, anyone who could spell “Internet” was an expert (also, I was the studio’s “Official Universal Monsters” expert because I was the only nerd who made it past the gatekeepers). A few years later, Universal was bought, I saw handwriting on the wall, started a web design firm with other Uni' ex-pats which crashed and burned within a year.

Moved back to NYC with my tail between my legs and went back to what I did for a living before the internet, which was to make merch. Most was of the apparel variety, off-brand and original stuff for fans of horror movies. I made a product called the “Zombie Outbreak Survival Kit” which exploded, and made me enough money to put toward growing the business.

My business’ legal name is SphereWerx, LLC, which I named after the Unisphere, the steel globe landmark in my hometown of Flushing, Queens, near the stadium where my poor Met's attempt to play baseball. After a few years of having to re-spell or correct the pronunciation of “Spherewerx,” I registered “Fourth Castle” as a “doing business as” name. I named it such because of the influence of your fellow countrymen – as with the King Of Swamp Castle in “Monty Python and the Holy Grail”, this was my fourth attempt at business, and it didn’t fall into the swamp😉

Coming back to NYC reunited me with an old high school buddy named Paul Clarke, who I was stunned to discover had a business called “Dr. Mego”, in which he would hand-make replacement parts for collectors of Mego action figures. If your Captain America lost a shield or Batman his cowl, Paul hand-poured them in resin, colored them and sent them off.

Eventually, he received a cease and desist from DC and Marvel, and asked me what he should do, and I said that I would put money into trying to get licences And bring back the Mego toys of the 1970s.

 

Through several partnerships with other license-holders, we successfully brought back Marvel, DC, Star Trek and other Mego-style figures, expanding beyond mere reproductions. I created the brand EMCE toys, drawn to look like the “Mego” logo, but pronounced “EM-CEE” or “M.C”, which stood for “Mego Corporation.”

Paul and I were handshake-partners, we never had anything on paper, but we agreed that we would split EMCE branded toys. Sadly, Paul’s “Dr. Mego” work was not enough to cut it professionally, so we hired out sculptors for heads and certain body parts, but I would sculpt small accessories or adaptations (Spock’s beard for the “Mirror, Mirror” set, Spider-Man’s webshooters and belt, etc.). I am not the sculptor of any of the major parts of any of our toys.

 

In 2008, the recession cratered sales, so even though Paul was a Mego fundamentalist, I said we had to do something to make a cheaper product. Megos were expensive to produce, so I focused on another old-school toy format: little green army men.

After a while, Paul stopped being involved in the toys brand, focusing more on his Dr. Mego business and coming back together with me for the occasional elaborate Marvel Megos we did with Diamond Select Toys.

 

I kept on with the army men and dubbed them “Nanoforce”, so I had a trademarkable name. Initially, the clunky sculpts were done by hand in the factory in China – we left them that way because a) they looked about as clunky as classic army men and b) it came free with the price of the production 😉

You pretty much know the rest, but I hope when my aforementioned presentation is complete and has made the rounds, I will send it to you as it does contain a pretty complete look at the Nano's we made from Day One. However, it’s so similar to your list as to be almost identical."

 

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So, to paraphrase the above, SphereWerx (legal), Forth Castle (trading as) and EMCE ('em-cee', line/range brand-mark) are the company name/s in the order they were acquired, Nanoforce is the brand-mark for the small 'army men' figures, and all the other names on the various sets or packaging generations are either the license-holders to the subjects depicted, or the contracting end-user (Diamond Select, Previews Exclusive/PX), even though EMCE's own branding is usually retained alongside as one or more marks. Toynk are the current distributor of the more commercial sets.

 

This is an updated/re-edited version of that original list, alphabetical;

• Aliens in Glowing Slime (figures from the below set, but glow in the dark polymer with a unique, oversized (in scale) 'Facehugger' sculpt. One figure per egg of slime, out of production and getting hard to find, old stock has now-solid, rubbery slime) - Diamond Select Toys / PX Previews Exclusive  / designed by Nanoforce by EMCE Toys) Licensor - 20th Century Fox.
• Aliens -vs- Colonial Marines (35 figures, out of production, but findable, getting a bit pricey - Diamond Select Toys / PX Previews Exclusive  / designed by Nanoforce by EMCE Toys) Licensor - 20th Century Fox.
• Fallout 76 [bags, see also You Will Emerge - below] (12 or 24 figures per bag, 3 sets, still around, affordable - Bethesda / Toynk / Nanoforce by EMCE Toys / Forth castle) Licensors - Bethesda Softworks a Zenimax Media Co.
• Fallout 76 [boxes] (13 figures per box, 4 boxed sets include a 4" figure and extra [blind pack] poses, still around, affordable - Bethesda / Toynk / Nanoforce by EMCE Toys / Forth castle) Licensors - Bethesda Softworks a Zenimax Media Co.
  
• Gears 5 (Gears of War), (5-figures + droid, bag, glow in the dark variation, still around, affordable - Nanoforce by EMCE Toys (a brand of) Forth Castle Macromedia) Licensors - The Coalition / XBox Games / Microsoft, UK retailer Toynk (?)
•  John Carpenter's Halloween (8 figures + 4 accessories and 1x 4" figure, very rare, limited edition of 2500 units, very expensive when found - Fright Rags / Nanoforce by EMCE Toys) Licensor - Compass International Pictures
• Night of the Living Dead (12 figures + 1x 4" figure, very rare, limited edition, very expensive when found - Fright Rags / Nanoforce by EMCE Toys / Image Ten)
• Star Trek - TNG (12 figures + micro-ship model, 'The Next Generation' boxed-set, newest, affordable, easier to find in UK - PX Previews Exclusive / Nanoforce by EMCE Toys / Fanwares a division of Fanwraps) Licensor - CBS Studios
• Star Trek - TOS (12 figures + micro-ship model, 'The Original (TV) Series' boxed-set, newest, affordable, harder to find in UK - PX Previews Exclusive / Nanoforce by EMCE Toys / Fanwares a division of Fanwraps) Licensor - CBS Studios
• Universal Monsters (planned/cancelled/next? EMCE / Mego?)
• You Will Emerge (24 figure 'Army Builder' bag of Fallout expansion, 23 common figures in 9 poses (twos or threes) with exclusive Jersey Devil flying monster, still around, affordable - Bethesda / Nanoforce by EMCE Toys / Forth castle, no Toynk) Licensors - Bethesda Softworks a Zenimax Media Co.
• Vault Tech Convention Exclusives (six figures from Fallout, in blind-bags, one per-bag, limited-edition yellow polymer, still findable/affordable - Bethesda / Toynk / Nanoforce by EMCE Toys / Forth castle) Licensors - Bethesda Softworks a Zenimax Media Co.
•  Zombies at War (35 figures, out of production, but findable, getting a bit pricey - PX Previews Exclusive / Brilliant Novelty Co. / Diamond Comic Distributors / EMCE Toys (a brand of) Forth Castle Macromedia, no 'Nanoforce')
• Zombies in Glowing Slime (as per above, but blind-bag model, in a tub of slime modelled as an oil drum, one figure per unit, glow-in-the-dark polymer, getting harder to track-down - PX Previews Exclusive  /  EMCE Toys) 
•  Zombies -vs- Zombie Hunters (35 figures, 10 poses, 3-each survivors, 4-each zombies, out of production, but findable, getting a bit pricey - PX Previews Exclusive / Brilliant Novelty Co. / Diamond Comic Distributors / EMCE Toys (a brand of) Forth Castle Macromedia, no 'Nanoforce')

In December, Joe was hopeful that more figures would come out this year, but I haven't seen/heard anything yet? Halloween was the last set issued, last autumn.

EMCE is for Every Model's a Corking Effigy

Two of the more recent lines from EMCE have been the TV/Movie tie-ins, including Star Trek, two of mine have gone to storage, and I've only scanned the boxes of the other two, so another brief look today, and something more substantial in the near-to-medium future!

 

Star Trek - The original Series (TOS), a set of upright or less dynamic poses, but the sculpting/detail is there, and each figure is recognisably who they are supposed to be depicting! You get four each of the figures in three colours, and a larger model of the original Enterprise (NCC-1701) in a smaller scale, so best added to the Galloob/Mattel/Soma mini-ship drawer!

 

I've never been a fan of the Horror genre, so couldn't have much to say about this, except that depicting other icons from the movie has reduced the figure count to only eight? But you do get a giant glow-in-the-dark matey as an extra!

 

I did shoot the other two before they went away to storage, and here - with stuff we've already seen in recent posts - are the Night of the Living Dead on the upper-left and Star Trek - The Next Generation (TNG) on the upper-right. I believe there has been talk of more monster sets, or a 'Universal' [studios] monster set.

The Living Dead had a full set of 12 figures along with another-glow-in-the-dark large-scale figure, while likewise the TNG set has 12 figures and an Enterprise model (NCC-1701-D), the figures in all four sets are pretty standard 54mm against the slightly smaller figures in the earlier Zombie and Alien sets.

All in all, a nice pair of additions to the increasing range of figures from EMCE.

EMCE is for Even More Colourful Entities

A slightly more full post than the previous two box-tickers on EMCE, in part thanks to a purchase from Gareth a while back, as I was wont to open mine, but they give us a decent idea on the various packaging types and there was some internet stuff to complete the picture.

Fallout, another video game and not easy to collect if - like me - you are coming to it after a few years, due to different formats on either side of the pond, issued at different times it seems (it's not clear!), the above are - however - best described as the commoner poses, although I suspect overall there aren't any especially rare ones, except the flying thing (below) maybe?

I won't bore you will background on the game (there's a good Wikipedia page), but it's nice to see Steve Jackson were in there at the start, I've had their card figures in my collection for the longest time. Suffice to say, it's a post apocalyptic game with missions and combat.

 

The blue figures above are the human 'vault dwellers' (bunker survivors) and there are four other factions in the whole line/range/game universe. the khaki figures are Mutants (apparently one is friendly) and the grey ones seem to be robots.

 

This is the way to get everything, and I will open them in the future, for more detailed posts when I have the time to do the research and gather all the little details, but note the Humans are grey plastic in these sets. Each of the sets also have a larger 100mm'ish 'display' figure, and some 'equipment' pieces, not all to scale?

 

There are also bagged sets, and this was where I got confused when purchasing them a year or so ago, as some seem to be 3-of-3, some seem to be 4-of-4 (couldn't find all of them), some are 12-figures, some 24, they don't seem to equate to the four boxed sets (which do seem to be definitive, as far as poses/pose-count goes), and the 'You Will Emerge' bagged set with cartoon artwork header-card is a stand-alone 'army builder' with the commoner figures seen through this post?

 

There is also a set of six yellow versions, first issued as Convention Exclusive blind-bag giveaways.

The humans from Vault 13; a male and a female, they are smaller than most of the other figurines in the set, but don't look out of place next to them due to the monumentalism of the mutants and mechanical nature of the mech's and because they share CAD-CAM design/sculpting.

 

The mutants; I think the 'friendly one' (I can't now find the reference, but I think it was on a sci-fi art group on Faceplant, so it may not be 'canon'?) is the one with both hands up?

 

I love the tripod here, shades of H G Wells' War of the Worlds, and there was a definite retro' aspect to the original 1990's gestation of the game, with stuff taken from American Cold War propaganda leaflets and posters.

 

I believe this is called a Jersey Devil and is a sort of flying-fox-vampire-manbat-perterrordactill! there wasn't one in the lot from Gareth and I didn't want to open my 'emerge' bag for a single figure, so shot it through the plastic! It does seem to be unique to this bag?

 

The convention giveaways were probably considered rare at one point, but Toynk are offering them on their website and on their eBay store, so if you need them (we none of us NEED any of this stuff!) they are about. They seem to be limited to the cartoony figures which I assume are another faction, related to that retro' poster stuff?

 

A few links;

As always, Sean was ahead of the game with these

This is a rather repetitive and too-gushy 'review'?

Toynk's Nanoforce Page (re previous EMCE post; Toynk are global and US based!)

That Wikipedia Fallout Page

 

Having sped-read the links as I found them, to correct the above, I think it goes like this . . . 4-of-4 boxed sets with thirteen items, 12 game 'pieces'/figures and one larger bonus sculpt, 3-of-3 bagged sets, two with a 12-count and one with 24, no bonus figures, all brand-marked Fallout 76, one 'army-builder' You Will Emerge bagged set with the unique Jersey Devil and 23 other [common] figures, and the six blind-bag Vault-Tec figures in yellow. I must have imagined the 4-of-4 bags, or someone listed one wrong on Amazon?

EMCE is for Even More Condensed Exposition

Another box ticker for EMCE Toys (Forth Castle), and, this time, their take of the Microsoft game Gears of War, specifically Gears 5, which Wikipedia (if you're as un-gamey as me) states; " . . . is the fifth main installment of the Gears of War series and the sequel to Gears of War 4. Gears 5 follows the story of Kait Diaz, who is on a journey to find out the origin of the Locust Horde, the main antagonistic faction of the Gears of War series"

 

EMCE only seem to have briefly dipped their toe in this one, with a six figure set, split between three red ('Locusts'?) and three blue figures (character figures?), although the whole set can be found in a glow-in-the-dark version too.

 

As far as I know, it was the first set of figures tied to the game, and no other figures have been issued for subsequent game editions (Gears Tactics), but as generic Sci-Fi troops; very useful. I'm guessing the lady on the header cards is Kait Diaz?

As with most of the EMCE output we've seen so far here at Small Scale World, there are a number of brands and brandmarks associated with this set;

• Forth Castle Micromedia are the parent of-
• EMCE Toys, the trading/design brand.
• Nanoforce is the overarching brand mark for the small-scale figure lines.
  
• The Coalition are the game designers.
• X-Box Game Studios are the platform carrier.
• Microsoft Corp., is the platform owner.
• Gears of War, Gears 5 & the 'crimson omen' logo (skull in a toothed gear-wheel) are brand marks/trademarks.
• Toynk were/are the UK importer (using the Amazon platform), I think; they may be a more global distributor?
  

EMCE is for Every Mutha's Clearly Exanimate!

I had an interesting chat (more of which later) with the current owner (also originator) of EMCE Toys, back in the Autumn, just before the old Laptop died, and mentioned to him that I had not managed to find the early set 'Zombies vs Zombie Hunters', only to find one a few weeks later! So with the weather changing plans drastically in the last few minutes (the lawn needs it), here's a quickie on that set, by way of a box-ticker.

You can't miss the zombies! I believe these predate the WWII zombies, which were the first of the EMCE products we saw here at Small Scale World, and hopefully we will soon have seen all their output, or mentioned it tangentially.

Like everything, they've been off to storage for a while now, but if my memory serves me well, the count worked out at three-each of five hunters and four each of five zombie sculpts; you need a crowd murmuring their way up the street! That's it, box ticker, EMCE zombies and hunters!

T is for Two - Slime Zombies, or Rather; Zombies in Slime!

Sometimes I can be a bit scatter-brained, and this post is the result of a little moment of scattered brain! I've been tracking down the output of EMCE before they get too expensive or hard to get . . . there's a sweet-spot between new (a bit pricey for what are basically rack-toys) and when they are getting hard to get (also pricey), when people who've been gifted them and don't want them, sell them off for less than they are still listing for on Amazon "none in stock, we don't know when they will become available again" (half of Amazon is dead pages!), it's that sweet-spot I'm after!

I knew there were glow-in-the-dark Zombies in slime-bins, so when I had a moment I searched for them on feebleBay, and one chap had some up for auction in the 'States, so I popped a bid on and crossed my fingers!

But, in those lines of similar/sponsored stuff underneath the listing was another chap, offering three, for considerably less, BIN? So I quickly grabbed them, uncrossed my fingers and desperately started hoping someone would out-bid me on the first lot!

Needless to say no one else bid, and in the end the larger lot arrived before the by-it-now lot, not that I'm complaining they were both not due until the 19th and we're in the middle of postal strikes (I'm totally supportive of; having spoken to both my beat Postie and the parcel-van guy).

Anyway I started shooting them for the EMCE post, and scanned the box they came with (1st image above), only for the other three to turn-up a few days later, and they were something completely different! I hadn't bothered reading the blurb or studying the pictures, just saw 'slime', 'drum' and 'zombie' in the title-bar and hit Buy It Now!

But it was a pleasant surprise as they were more slime Zombies, just not the EMCE glow-ones! So, I took the first lot of images out of the EMCE folder (which is stuffed with other stuff, and may get further broken down anyway - gaming, horror, Star Trek?) and fashioned a quick T is for Two!

The late three being Dolgen (Dollar General Stores) Parts Alive, Spill & Rebuild Oil Can Slime, with a Lego-likey zombie figure! Here scaled with one of Berserker's mates who came in with a junk-lot the other day - he, himself, went to storage ages ago!

It was during this process that I discovered vinegar is the solvent for slime, I wanted to flush the muck away, only to find that neither washing-up liquid, nor TFR had any measurable effect! Although, when I say 'discovered' . . . I Googled it!

The seller included a loose figure which appears to have had a strange reaction to the self-seal/click-shut bag he came in, soaking-up more blue than the bag ever possessed, but I'll keep him like it, it works quite well!

Obviously the figures are the same as the standard WWII Zombies we looked at here, and with one per 'oil drum' I'll leave the rest for now, I just don't have the time to be wrestling with multiple slime and vinegar patties!

Forewarned (or previously experienced) is forearmed, so with this brown-black gloop, I just wrapped it in kitchen-paper and burned it on the stove! You can see it had invaded the packet the figure's parts were in, so it was still a messy business, but I rescued all his components.

There had been a leak from the 'sealed' capsule too, and like the EMCE Aliens egg-slime the other day, had set to a rubbery polymer which I could just rub off where it was stuck to the sticker-wrapper, rather than the cellulose outer wrapper.

So quite by the result of too much speed and not enough haste or something I ticked two boxes, and learnt more than I need to about the properties of slime . . . you can also make it yourself, but as most of the recipes seem to include white wood-glue/PVA, I wouldn't advise it?

The fact that the Dolgen 'kubrick' Zombie is the same as the one on the can-art, suggests they are all the same so I will keep the other two sealed as well. He seems to be a US policeman in a WWII German helmet? While the EMCE as well as sharing billing with PX / Previews Exclusive again, are further credited to the Brilliant Novelty Company.

S is for Solid Slime!

This'll be the seventh post on the Aliens franchise this year, so clearly 'the year of the Aliens' here at Small Scale World . . . purely accidental, or coincidental! These are another iteration of the EMCE 'Nanoforce' figures with an additional Alien sculpt and no Colonial Space Marines!

Further branded to both Diamond Select and Previews Exclusive (PX), who have been associated with a lot of the EMCE 'toy soldiers' stuff, the slime has, over time, set solid! The material is a sort of bouncy-ball rubber now, so I had to break them out physically, rather than just pull them gently away from the gloop!

The solvent for slime is apparently vinegar (discovered for a forthcoming post!), but I'm not sure it would succeed in re-hydrating these lumps! I kept a few of the larger lumps as a 'might be useful later' addition to the 'spares box'!

Of the six possible, I managed to end-up with four sculpts, which is not bad going, when I already have the standard ones, but there is a surprise here, in a sixth pose (a 'Facehugger'), as the previous issue only had the five adult Xenomorphs. It's not a very good sculpt, and out of scale (unless you collect Action Man/GI Joe dolls) but may - therefore - remain uniquely in the glow-material, as far as being a collectable goes.

The Facehugger is not on the press image (left), probably because it's a bit shit, but the box clearly states "collect all six Aliens!". The box is shown as being apparently a 24-egg double-decker, while mine only has the one layer of 12 eggs, which also calls for a shout-out to eBay seller 'silver-acre' (Darryl Jones, Silver Acre Comics) who sent me the whole box with a multiple purchase even though it wasn't part of the offer - cheers dude; got a post out of them!

N is for Nanoforce

Mentioned in the previous post; they aren't 'nano', nor even micro, or mini, but Britains 'standard' 54mm'ish!

A funny one this, coming after a discussion the other day on Brian Heiler's Faceplant Group page and Shawn's Fantasy Blog just posting the Star Trek figures (I have one; The Next Generation, but Original Series aren’t on UK Amazon yet) leading me to feel a look at EMCE, the common thread in a number of nice figure sets is in order.

The set here is designed by EMCE under a Nanoforce^TM brand-mark, and sold by Diamond Select Toys (operation behind the 888-comic-book shop locator portal, President & CEO; Steve Geppi) under a PX / Previews Exclusive brand mark, all four brands are on the header card! EMCE were/are a design team, originally set up by Paul “Dr Mego” Clarke (licensee, marketer?) with Joe Sena (sculptor) on board.

Joe Sena was already President of Spherewerx, another brand, and the EMCE connection was a partnership which has (temporarily?) ended, although it appears Joe now controls (or can still use) the EMCE branding. Now, for those who need to know more, there is tons out there, especially on Youtube, as the bigger story involves Mattel, Mego and huge licences for action-figures, about which I have little interest.

But they have produced quite a few "2-inch figures" (their words), or 51mm, under the umbrella brand Nanoforce, of which we have seen the WWII Zombies here already, are - here - looking at the Aliens figures, and have Fallout, Gears of War and the aforementioned Star Trek in the long queue!

Some of the newer stuff (Gears' and Fallout) is actually closer to the full 54/56mm (with their thicker bases), but 'Trek, Aliens (here) and the Zombies at War are closer to 50mm, this is as complete a list as I can muster, alphabetically;

• Aliens -vs- Colonial Marines (35 figures, out of production, but findable, getting a bit pricey - Diamond Select Toys / PX Previews Exclusive  / designed by Nanoforce by EMCE Toys) Licensor - 20th Century Fox.
• Fallout 76 (12 figures per bag, 3 sets, 4 boxed sets include a 4" figure and extra [blind pack] poses, still around, affordable - Bethesda / Toynk / Nanoforce by EMCE Toys / Forth castle) Licensors - Bethesda Softworks a Zenimax Media Co.
• Gears 5 (Gears of War), (5-figures + droid, bag, glow in the dark variation, still around, affordable - Nanoforce by EMCE Toys (a brand of) Forth Castle Macromedia) Licensors - The Coalition / XBox Games / Microsoft, UK retailer Toynk (?)
•  John Carpenter's Halloween (12 figures + 1 4" figure, very rare, limited edition of 2500 units, very expensive when found - Fright Rags / Nanoforce by EMCE Toys) Licensor - Compass International Pictures
• Night of the Living Dead (12 figures + 1 4" figure, very rare, limited edition, very expensive when found - Fright Rags / Nanoforce by EMCE Toys / Image Ten)
• Star Trek (12 figures + micro-ship model, 2 boxed-sets so far, newest, affordable - PX Previews Exclusive / Nanoforce by EMCE Toys / Fanwares a division of Fanwraps) Licensor - CBS Studios
• Universal Monsters (planned/cancelled? EMCE / Mego?)
• You Will Emerge (24 figure bag, Fallout expansion, still around, affordable - Bethesda / Nanoforce by EMCE Toys / Forth castle, no Toynk) Licensors - Bethesda Softworks a Zenimax Media Co.
• Zombies at War (35 figures, out of production, but findable, getting a bit pricey - PX Previews Exclusive / Brilliant Novelty Co. / Diamond Comic Distributors / EMCE Toys (a brand of) Forth Castle Macromedia, no 'Nanoforce')
•  Zombies -vs- Zombie Hunters (35 figures, out of production, but findable, getting a bit pricey - PX Previews Exclusive / Brilliant Novelty Co. / Diamond Comic Distributors / EMCE Toys (a brand of) Forth Castle Macromedia, no 'Nanoforce')

Glow in the dark versions of both the Aliens (not Colonial Marines) and Zombies (not Hunters) were available in glowing slime as blind-capsule purchases from shop-counter boxes, five sculpts each.

The figures are OK, but a bit clumpy, like the Zombies at War, not as polished as the current Gears'/Fallout/'Trek set's figures. You get 35 figures in total, with 5 sculpts for each 'side' and you are pretty much guaranteed to get at least three-each of all ten poses in a set.

Z is for Zombie Men . . . Women, Dogs and Mummies!

We've managed black cats, skeletons, a possible yeti, assorted monsters and a bunch of ghosts, there's only one trope left really, the undead! The risen from the dead and the rising from the dead! Let's tick those boxes for the finale!

Again, we saw these last year as shelfies (or sent images) I think, but Brian B then kindly sent some to the Blog so here they are in close-up, issued by Greenbrier in the 'States and DTSC in Canada.

It's a fact that all the best of these Halloween/Horror figures come from (or via/due to the efforts of-) North America. Apart from the odd thing like 99p Store's re-issue of Dolgen or the odd Amazon offer (see below), I've looked hard this year and the mountains of plastic tat available for Halloween are of such shite quality and ephemeral robustness they constitute an excuse for banning Halloween here altogether!

It's also a fact I'll get this whinge into one of the posts every year!

Both sides of the card for those who archive this kind of stuff - I do!

A comparison with the other set (SCS Direct in the 'States) which Peter Evans had sent to the blog in time for last year's posts.

Now, I mentioned Amazon, and I did find these on Amazon UK from Fun Express (aping that other firm's packaging again, Amscan . . . or Unique?) and they were quite cheap so, despite the imagery being less than helpful or hopeful, I ordered a set, and this is it, but it wasn't much fun!

What you get is 12 figures, which seem to be split 6 each of the two colours, one a drying-blood red, the other looking to be glow-in-the-dark, but not; just a greenish-white - interior decorators would call it apple-snow or some pretentious crap like that, think - raw tripe!

But when it comes to poses the pack disappoints. Totally random contents with four of some and one of others, I ended up with three poses, one in both colours. now they were cheap, and I did intend to get a couple more sets to see if there were other poses, or just to get all (?) three in both colours, but I kept putting it off as there's no guarantee (from my first sample) that even two more sets would achieve that?

If you try, good luck, they are sized to fit others and as army-builders are a useful addition to the canon, but with most rack-toy issuers getting quite good at packing balanced lots these days it is disappointing to see these, especially as they seem to go to the effort of counting colours? Just pick from 'pose-bins' . . . some firms have automated it so you get a whole or part-runner in each bag!

You can see how he goes well with the WWII set (far right - EMCE Toys 'Previews Exclusive, Zombies At War') we looked at a year or two ago, and he's not much smaller than the two grey zombie sets (far left), so they are useful, but you may need four or five bags to get a good sample?

The big mummy is marked similarly to Phidal stuff but is a softer material than they are currently using and seems to be from 2009, so he may be an early issue from this increasingly prolific (55 sets in the 2019 catalogue?) figure source, he's also another candidate for a Scooby-Doo related-set?

While I don't know anything about the other chap, I'd guess a 1980's rack-toy . . . possibly a He-Man/MotU rip-off? He's a very dense polyethylene or some type of nylon?

Finally Mr. Berke has sent a shelfie of the same black carded version of Dolgen's Mummy Army, and how come they keep getting ten poses while the skeletons have always been limited to eight? Some Pharaoh's-curse rubbish I'll bet . . . fussa-russa!

Thanks again Brian, thanks again Peter, see what turns-up in twelve-month's time!

Z is for Zombie Toy Soldiers!

These came out a couple of years ago; EMCE Toys 'Previews Exclusive, Zombies At War', and come three each of five poses in two colors for a full 30-count, medium hardness PVC and a tad on the small size at around 45/50mm

This was originally going to be it, as far as imagery goes - along with the captioned one at the end - but I was never too happy with it, it enlarges OK but it's a bit grainy and the contrast is all wonky but it shows all the figures, and can stay, as I hate chucking every image from a shoot!

The GI's, placed somewhere between WWII and Vietnam (one's got a M16-alike), they're not heavily equipped and the chap with a pack has one that defies ID'ing as a piece of service kit!

What's more  of a mystery is that two of the figures; 3rd and 5th from the left, appear to have been designed to interact with accessories - which are not present - both having almost 'grippy' hands and poses that need a support of some kind?

The Germans are clearly WWII, with no's 2 and 3 from the left also seeming to need-/be designed for- missing props or scenic items. That second one is also equipped with a similar main pack and utility 'bat-belt' as the GI!

The guy with the Luger/Mauser/Captain Scarlet blaster is doing a good job of balancing on one leg, and while the commander (middle figure) is holding someone else's leg; number five is holding his own arm in a rather macabre fashion!

Kelly's Zero's

As always with this horror/fantasy stuff; Shaun was way ahead of the wave, so there's more here.