P is for Plastic Glass!

Sort of a 'part three', but not really connected to the previous two, which dealt with the 1950/60's stuff, these are the more common stuff from the 1970/80's, and will be quite recognisable to most of you, and really no more than an overview of the other plastic 'vitrines' out there.

 

I sorted the Tags out last night, and 'Glassware' covers everything made of glass from marbles up, but not these, 'Vitrines' covers the real glass versions of these, and they will also have the Glassware tag, while 'Glass Animals' will cover both these plastic ones and the glass ones, so these will have the latter Tag only, marbles will get Glassware only, and real glass animals will have all three Tags, which will hopefully help someone in the future, get the right search-results up?

 

A nice set of six from Hans Postler over the Channel, they are better known, to us, from their many sets of rack-toy soldiers, more in keeping with the main thrust of the Blog, but that this is here, reminds us most of these guys were general 'Toy & Novelty' importers/wholesalers, and would turn their hands to anything they thought they could make a small profit on, and, these are probably 1980's, or later?

 

These have more the look of the '70's about them, and they have tree-hanger rings in them, so there you go, get a daft-looking mouse hung for the festive season! But, you know, if you can't afford the glass ones, because you have some shitty, underpaid job, and live on a trailer-park, and you see these going cheap in the local gas station, or drug store, why not, if only for the kids?

 

Kids aren't snobs, now, I am a bit of a snob, specifically on Christmas decorations, but I was raised to be so, by my late, and much missed mother, who had her own reasons for being like that; Nuns, an even stricter mother and an Edwardian upbringing!

 

'The sins of the Fathers . . .', 'The child is the father of the man'  and all that! There is always a truism in old sayings, wives tales and aphorisms. The tragedy is that somehow, 70-years of progressive democrats, totally failed to educate enough idiots, as to what they were trying to do, and we now have enough Morlocks and Yahoos, who don't get 'Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel', and they are giving justification to the Trumps, Farages and Le Penns of intolerance?

 

Just as we need the World to come together like never before, the warmongers, climate-deniers, the superstitious, and the anti-science brigades, rise, like muddy, Ork scum from Isengard, to wreak the planet with their ignorance, and singularly selfish stupidity.

 

A knock off Snoopy, an elephant who's also a key-ring, two more of the cocktail glass donkeys, we saw in brown, last time, and a variation on the Hans Postler elephant. The HP set is basically the six commonest types (from experience; that may not be strictly true!).

 

Another elephant, slightly better (slightly earlier?), another mouse, and the deer we saw in one of the comparison shots a few weeks ago. The elephant, if cleaned would have that faux uranium-glass look to him, but I don't know if it's a transparent marker (like most of them) or dyed plastic, and fear if I cleaned him, he might lose all his original colour!

 

A swan and yet another mouse!

 

Two of the mieces, back to back, but not yet in pieces!

 

Two of the elephants, with a small rhinoceros, he's probably from a Christmas cracker, but could equally be a gum-ball, capsule-machine prize, or something from a Lucky-bag, this stuff tended to get around!

 

The Rhino', it's missing one of those crappy plastic key-rings, you press both ends of, to hook onto the plastic oblong which he has retained. Is it meant to be a woolly-rhino'?

 

Only came in recently, and a charm-loop suggests gum-ball or Christmas crackers again?

 

These are interesting, Bam Bam and Pebbles, from the Flintstones, both larger sculpts to, they seem to have been taken from the sort of PVC stuff Bully and Comics Spain might have been issueing, he's holding a club behind his back!

 

While these are equally interesting for having been taken from a set of dogs, which we may have seen here in more realistic colours, as polyethylene toys, but here in the same clear 'canopy' 'styrene, enhanced with transparent coloured marker-pen! We'll look at proper glass ones next!

T is for Tilnar Art

Something completely different now, chunky 'arty' aluminium, but we don't get many chances to get the Aluminium Tag dusted off, so it's overdue! I saw these Tilnar Art products, at the Spring Fair in Birmingham, back in early February, and loved the fact that they had the same deep, metallic lustre as those Jada figures I like, so here they are!

 

Various products, including dinosaurs and penguins.

 

Longhorn Cattle, or not so shaggy Highlanders!

 

Deer.

 

Also drilled for keychains.

 

Love these, deep, almost glassy-red Elephants, in various sizes!

 

Art Deco'esque Elephants!

A blue family of the other design, just visible in the background. 

 

Puffins.

 

relief-flat Angels.

 

I had a chat with the chap behind Tilnar, and it seems to be pretty-much a one-man band, although there were staff, so a growing enterprise, and by using recycled aluminium, helping to try and save the planet!

Obviously aimed at the gift and tourist markets, expect to find them in little bijou boutiques about the place, or gift-shops, while on your travels.

E is for Eye Candy - Wild Minimals!

E is for . . . will be a new trope here, a single shot of interest, or a couple of shots, with a bit of blurb, maybe maximising Tags, illustrating a particular feature or specific point, or just showing a nice image!

 

Today it's some of the many sets of 'Minimals' as I call them, the smallest size of commonly commercial plastic animals, approximately 30/40mm-figure compatible, but actually 'unit sized', so never to true scale with smaller animals in real life rendered larger, and larger animals in real life rendered smaller.

 

Two bags of loose, but clean samples (bottom left), probably complete or near-complete (all these sets tend to a content count of between 8-16 items), and then clockwise from the top left; Ackerman Group tub, 'Play Works' from The Works bag, Kandytoys blister-card, Boland BV of the Netherlands and Henbrandt (second set I think - newer card, we looked at both passim), both header-carded bottle-bags.

 

The contents of these sets are always fun, with an almost guaranteed Elephant, Giraffe and Lion, with Tiger and/or Leopard/Cheetah/Jaguar type (occasionally a black panther), then a Hippo and/or Rhino. Most sets will have some kind of Monkey or Gorilla, some have both, and a Zebra is almost as guaranteed as the three standards.

 

Then it gets a little less predictable with Camels or Kangaroo's to the fore and some kind of ruminant, either a North American / European Deer/Moose/Elk, Bison/Wisent or an African / Asian Gazelle/Antelope type or Buffalo/Wildebeest, better sets have a Bear, but it can be black, brown or 'polar', and usually only one, if present!

 

More off-the-wall items in bigger sets might include an Alligator/Crocodile type, an oversized Turtle or an equally enlarged Penguin! There have also been several insectivore/Ant-eater types over the years, and occasionally a - usually poorly sculpted - Hyena thing, or Wild Boar/Warthog! And these mini-sets are never usually more than two-fifty or three-quid - proper pocket-money toys!

F is for Festive Figural Fur-Baubles

Yes, I know we've had the Bears, because they are every year, we've had the Nutcrackers, because they've become every year, and the Hedgepigs because they are getting annual, not forgetting the Astronauts, newest theme, but with two new sculpts; also becoming regular now, but I did pick up a few other figural baubles this year, more than I probably should have, but there always seems to be more room on the tree . . . it's a question of putting the largest on first, and the smallest last, after the dangly ones!

 

This actually breaks a couple of the self-imposed rules, as far as baubles go with me, specifically, the slightly anthropomorphic adoption of a Christmas jumper, and the appliqué pom-pom headdress, however, it was the first one I saw (in the big Marks & Spark's down at the Meadows, Camberley), and not knowing what else I might find, by the end of the season, I bought it, and it's grown on me, so will stay, in fact it looks very smart, but . . . M&S!

 

Not least because it revealed a trend in the sales/marketing of baubles this year, and - as a result - gave rise to a new theme, which already has four members - Big Cats! It's probably supposed to be a Leopard, but as we will see in a minute, I'm calling it the Cheetah, because of the more moggie-like face!

I then found these in a Charity Shop, i Farnborough, I think? I bought the deer when I first found them, but went back for the other two, as the tree also has a bird theme, and I thought the oak-leaf would be a nice foil to all the pine-cones. They were modern generics with no makers marks or consumer information on their individual boxes, and you wonder what sad tale led to them being 'discarded'?

Speaking of cones, these both came while the hedgehogs and spacemen were being procured, and I can't remember where either was found, but probably both garden centres? The cones are legion, and we may look at them all one day, as there are ancient and modern, and meany designs, while the gingerbread man is a departure for the tree, but he'll be at home with the snowmen and Santa's.

I got this the day I rejected the 'Starman', from the garden centre near Woking, it's another Gisela Graham, and they also had spotted ones, but using the same Tiger moulding, which was daft as the stripes are sculpted-in - lazy marketing! So I left them on the peg, thinking this would be a better foil for the Cheetah!

Then this came in while I was having a frantic, last-minute two-day search for the star-holder astronaut (whose location, I had forgotten!), and a couple of duplicates to send to a friend, it was a TKMaxx, late stock addition, and will have to be a Leopard, even if it's meant to be a Cheetah, because . . . see above!

And it came in this set, branded to a Rachel Zoe with a Lion, so we went from no Big Cats, to four, in one season! But the Lion and Zebra are very pink, more than the photo's suggest, so they will be going to the little white 'gay tree', with all the other pinks.

 

Leaving the Elephant, who's almost as round as a conventional bauble! I'm not desperately enamoured of him, he's a bit too cartoony, but he has a right to live, and is a bit of fun! All the above are traditional blown-class ornaments.

S is for Shelfies - Asda Supermarkets

I seem to have had quite a few shelfie sessions this year, we've seen a few, and there are still a couple in the queue, this was some shots I took back at the start of October in Asda, now free of Walmart, but facing a huge debt-constructed black-hole, which seem to have been created by the new-owners using the company as a piggy-bank!

 

I was seriously tempted by the guardsman, given the number of existing chaps in the 'novelty' sub-zone of the ceremonial stash, but thought four-quid was a bit steep for such a simple toy, and concluded that a picture would suffice!

Equally novelty, these are your bog-standard streachy animals, in some kind of gloop-in-a-bottle, as with all these shelfie shots, taken to help ID the stuff lose, in the future, although they are the sort of thing which will probably get several formats/outings? Here credited to Toymania.

I think these are new tubs, obviously, there are so many variants of the palm trees out there now, you never know if they've been bought in as make-weights, or if you're just looking at a new packaging of something seen before!

Reasonable sculpts, as I say, probably seen before, and not given the imaginative colourings of some modern dinosaur models, however, there's not many in the tub, and at the origianl £15, far too much? At the reduced £9 a bit better, but still pricey for what you get, there's a post coming on a wildlife set from another store chain, which at £9.99p will be worth a comparison with these.

Again, there's only six or seven animals, in a larger scale, and a lot of 'playability' detritus, but, to be fair, the size of the tub is deceptive in that these were smaller than the usual tubs.

T is for Two - Donations

On two recent meetings Adrian Little of Mercator Trading has given me small tubs of odds and sods, some of which are quite rare, unusual or interesting, and having found the errant pig hiding in one of the folders yesterday, I thought I'd better get the rest up here and shared with you.

Two of the pretty ugly, but quite rare Cherilea dinosaurs start this little parade of past plastic playthings, and while the Pterodactyl is reasonably complete, if rather playworn, the something ...nodon (tyranodon?) has lost a leg and the bit of the tail with the start of its name on! But, these will go with several others, some also a bit broken, in a growing sample.

 

Another handful of Blue Box Japanese, I will have some spares for swaps once they are all brought together and sorted for a final time, which is ironic, because for some time I had so few Nazar Marchenko sent me the missing figures as one of the first contributors to the Blog. Since when I've found and shown colour variations, painted examples and several mounted have either come in or been seen courtesy of Chris Smith!

 

Four Marx and a Deluxe Reading/Topper 50mm air-force/space types, very timely, as with the others in storage, they will be useful for a forthcoming comparison shot, and quite compatible with each other.

 

Another of the Taiwanese issue of the old European Asterix ice-cream/bubble-gum premiums, I opened the previous bag to shoot for a post here at Small Scale World, so I'll be leaving this one intact, as it's the less common one with shield etc . . .

 

I think these may be from Starlux, but are unmarked and probably from a boardgame, issued as premiums or possibly sold as die-cast vehicle set accessories, a' la Solido? I honestly don't know, and Starlux did have some unmarked stuff, and did issue unpainted toward the end, so?

 

Two of the figures from the MPC playset, on Planet of the Apes, the figures are in the style of Marx's made in Hong Kong WoW and Disney stuff, gloss-painted hard polystyrene, and while quite common are nevertheless nice examples of a subject which didn't get many toys outside the Mego action figure types.

This is fascinating, and anything you can add will be eagerly digested, it's a polystyrene novelty elephant, which is in two halves, apparently joined by a large ring and cavity thing which had me momentarily thinking it was a secret safe, hidden cavity type thing, before realising it's glued to its base (which also looks like the lid of something), even though there's no glue between the two halves which join tightly with no flash.

 

It could be the [sliding] lid of a vesta-case, cigarette case, or visiting/playing card case of some kind, maybe another version without the base does do service as a secret stash? Quite a good shade of 'ivorene', it's a charming, yet enigmatic little thing? 

Then, the other day, Adrian gave me a small tub of mostly die-cast vehicle accessories ad model kit figures, and these are the smaller ones with Lledo, Scalextric, Hornby and an unknown lead/whitemetal figure (O-Men?).

 

While these would appear to be the incomplete contents of both versions of the Airfix Old Bill/Omnibus kits, a Matchbox, a Dinky and a Britains Stage Coach lady passenger. I wasn't sure about the standing figure, but he's a heat-shrink which someone has painted-up anyway!

T is for Two - Freebies!

Except at £4, 5, or 6.99, these modern kid's periodicals aren't exactly cheap, so whatever they Sellotape to the cover is not entirely 'free', but it brings down the unit cost, and none more so than this rather generic mag' I found back in November - Everything Jungle!

Two stories and forty-four stickers, sort of explains why we are going extinct, doesn't it? Sort of explains why we aren't rioting in the streets over the 300,000+ excess deaths of our loved-ones in the last four years, why we aren't protesting outside No.10 about the closure of 700 libraries? When you compare Look & Learn, World of Wonder or Tell Me Why to what kids get given these days, it rather explains everything.

 

But let's not worry about that boring real-life stuff, we've got free toys! I'm not sure if you'd call the upper cat a Leotah, or a Cheepard, but comparison with the other big cats will eventually clear up that attempt at a lame joke, by forcing it into one bag or the other, and for either cat it's quite well decorated for a Chinese generic.

 

As is the tiger, 90% of all tigers ever, having being pretty poor in the decoration department, over the years (and I include all generations/materials of Britains in that damming statement), obviously Schleich/Papo it 'aint, but better than most, it is. A reasonable [baby - if they are in-scale] elephant makes up the trio.

But then they gave us these as well, Iwako style/rip-off, plug-together erasers, two parrots, and - more amazingly - two designs, bargain! Kennedy Enterprises go in the Tag list and everyone is happy . . . aren't they?

P is for Partially Seen Elsewhere - Acédo African Scene

I posted my small sample of these elsewhere, the same day, I think, but I shot a better sample on Mercator Trading's stall at the show (last London show of last year?), so we can have a better look at this French production now.

Acédo, the plastics 'arm'  of Domage et Cie (Domage and Co.), the company also behind Aludo (aluminium production), are responsible for this little set-up! Obviously made in polymerised cellulose acetate, and apparently depicting a peaceful, or civilian take on African life in a rural village, sans modernism!

 

I wondered about the trees and huts, as they looked a bit homemade (huts) and converted from something like Playmobil (trees), but a quick Google that evening revealed similar huts and some similar, but very different-shaped trees, so I think the pieces were made as flat sections, or bare boughs, and then assembled, with heat, glue and hand-held pyro-gravure work - to hide the joins. Portable hairdryers were invented in the 1920's, and can be set 'too hot' (for scalps!), so all very doable.

 

The running boy and drummer being not warlike, although the full set does include a warrior with spear and shield and a white hunter in pale safari-suit, the warrior is sort of waving his spear & shield as if 'beating' the game toward the hunter.

Close-up of my previously seen sample, other colours of loin-cloth turn-up including dark blue and white, but I don't know what other animals might be considered part of the set, a rhino, hippo, ostrich and more monkeys were in the 'zoo' sets, so there was a species-bank to pick from!

 

Usually found decorated, and the only one seen, on the day, I don't know if it's a late production thing, unpainted, or if it has been stripped, due to poor wear of the original decoration?