S is for Seen Elsewhere - Kinder Animals

I put these on the animal forum, in two tranches, some quite a while back, some more recently, but good to get them off the PC and onto an archive dongle! Kinder animals, older and newer!

 

1980's, I think these were from a set of four buffalo - African (black), Asian 'Water', N. American Buffalo and Wisent, but which is which (on the green one), and whether that's a true fact (set of four) are both open questions! Simple four-part clip-together toys.

 

Also the 1980's or maybe the 1990's, lift the tail and the head drops, push the tail down and the head rises - clever!

 

Deffinately the 1980's, I had one for a long time, which came with my packed-lunch egg! I lost a hoof, and it was years before I found another one! This is a polystyrene, ten-part, clip-together 'kit'.

 

A more modern take on the giraffe, his head also moves, but without the complicated hidden-gear mechanism.

 

These last four are more contemporary; since the late 2000's Kinder have had an almost constant series of animal sets, some more realistic, some more cutesy, some downright cartoony, but all under a theme-umbrella of wild-life, endangered, save the earth, kinda' stuff. The reindeer may be from a Frozen line?

K is for Kinder Cam Toys

A common trope with Kinder since the start, is toys with offset, angled or split axles or studs (offset cams), whereby the offset section/s drive other components, which produces novelty action as the toy is pushed or pulled over a surface, not much blurb needed, so here's a few I shot earlier!

Group shot!

Note different style of ice-cream cart with lower sides.

C is for Chris's Autumn Parcel - Intro'

OK, it looks like the Canoes will be January now, if they are lucky, it's not that I've got tons of stuff in the long queue, that's a given (!), it's that I've lots in the medium and short queues too!  And if I don't clear the Christmas stuff - or at least some of it - it will be hanging around for another year, while I must catch-up with both donations and show-reports (Sandown and London are sitting here!), so I'm going to try and alternate Chris's donation with nativity stuff first, and then we'll see what's left of December!

Signed for and collected the keys to the flat today, so I'll be busy in the background getting this place empty! Made some space in the storage units at the weekend . . . sorting cold stuff in minus-3, in a steel shipping container, while losing the light is no fun I can tell you! But it keeps me young!

The seen elsewhere shot; all Chris's donations have been fantastic, however I get the feeling he's got more of a measure of the Blog and it's needs over the years, as this one was particularly super, with lots of unusual figures, rare gap-fillers, one-off's, novelties and things which, while we may have looked at them before (Tyrolean weather-clock figures for instance), will undoubtedly enhance future posts on the same subject.

One of the things I didn't shoot separately for the other posts (I think we're going to get 8 or 9 posts out of the whole box) was a bag of Kinder bits, and while I'm not sure if the Esquimaux see above was in the earlier post, mentioned the other day in a follow-up, it might have been; it's been a pretty chaotic last few months!

I actually picked up a few the other day with that yellow Arctic denizen, but the two medieval crossbowmen in that other lot were as brittle as hell, so when we get round to them, they will need a bit of strategically-placed blue-tack to be remotely photogenic, but I have others!

While the 40mm horseman here needs his paint removed, they also suffer from brittleness, perticularly of the thin parts (from day one!), so that'll be a careful, or gentle job, once I'm settled elsewhere.

A bag of bits on the left (nice barrel) and a bag of Giant/Giant-like bits also went to the mighty* sorting zone without a closer look. The green blob is one of those palm-squirters from a Christmas cracker, several bits of meat were rather intriguing, the red thing is a petrol-pump and I'm loving the Scot's Monarch's Arms, paper sand-castle flag . . . there's a tub-full of similar items somewhere in the stash, waiting for their 'overview' moment!

* mighty because of its daunting size, not because it's powerful!

This was a lovely thing to find in a toy parcel! It's a self-published book from 1997, the author goes through the building of a home-injector, part-by-part and it's real Heath-Robinson stuff (or, because the author is an American; Rube Goldberg'ian stuff!) , I aspire to have a go, but I'll need a workshop, and probably can't run to one on what will be my budget in the Spring, but I was thinking of joining one of these craft/tech cooperatives, so maybe yet?

Cheers Chris; another fantastic lot . . . I'm off and running; 'combat' stuff next to keep the fighty-bitey bits as far from the 25th as I can!

F is for Follow-up - Esquimaux Explorers

A quick follow-up to October's post on Kinder Arctic subjects, as I managed to pick up a colour variant on Friday, which we can have a quick shufti at! And re, that previous post's title, it's bloody cold now, they recon minus-7° tonight, which may be balmy for some of the Northern/Continental Loyal Readers, but it's pretty rare in sodding Hampshire!

This one is all a primrose yellow, I could look up the code and value but I think I've made that point, and it'll all be on the A-Z's one day, or at least that's the plan! He comes with an ice-axe and husky dog, rather that the skis-&-sticks of the previous example

K is for Kinder's Kooky Karacters!

And . . . so to the missing post, I'd had the first two figures in the 'Halloween 2022' folder for a year or so, but when I started to collate all the other kwik-Kinder posts we've had in the last month or two, I renamed it and moved it to the Kinder section (2032), so it's been sitting five lines below the Halloween section (2033) in the Picasa index for the whole time I couldn't find it . . . sometimes I'm so dumb I'm a danger to myself; I don't care if I'm a danger to others, that's their lookout!

The left-hand pumpkin-head is by Zeta Espacial Sa., circa-2006, while the right-hand figure is a plug-together from Kinder, also 1980's (ran for a while) which came in various colours some of which the Germans get very excited about, but only if they know what they're looking for, they can all still be 99p on evilBay, or less as part of a mixed lot!

These I think were late 1980's or 1990's, and when I say "think", I mean I don't care! I've got the book back here to give chapter and verse, as I did the other night (to make a point), but really, if you need the code, estimated value and date, go find a Kinder site, there are dozens of very good ones.

Anyway, around that time there were two or three of these 'styrene sets of 'solids', which are of Ghosts doing everyday things, sometimes with a twist; painting one side of a wall from the other, sometimes not; reading a book?

While these are more recent, but include the same ghost trope with other characters, including a 'devil dog' chasing . . . . not sure, his own Ghost, a Ghostly rat? It's not clear! Likewise; "What's in the bag, sinister guy; kittens to drown"? And why is there a Werewolf in a bright-yellow flasher-mac? Very odd - is some of this Kinder shite!

Close-ups of the previous set, five of six and what is it . . .  a rabbit Ghost? All the pale bits - Ghosts, chased animal and sack are glow-in-the-dark, and I think the Werewolf has a cam-wheel connected to his working jaw? Some of these were shot a while ago and I didn't take many notes!

Not so Halloween'y, but it's a little Devil, the joke is he's stepping on the angel's scales to trick him into thinking he's overweight, but as he (the Putti)'s floating on clouds he should weight nothing! The set was of various mean-spirited actions by similar Imps!

These were the 2000's I think and again there may have been more than one set of Vampirellis, a very Italian-sounding title, because they are ultimately an Italian product.

These are odd; they are modern'ish 12/15 years back, maybe less? They are sealed Ghosts in a glasslike clear plastic, before they are sealed a very small 3 or 4mm's dice is placed in the cavity, so you can learn gambling!

Except it's quite hard to read the dice, and they sort of look like they are Ghosts of specific things, while also being pretty abstract designs, and the 'Championgho*st' graphic is given a medieval banner twist.

Another one from the MPG years (current), and also rather whacky stuff, almost channeling the daft plastic model-kits of Aurora, Revell and Pyro's 'Ed Roth'-esque and grotesque horror/surf-culture, back in the day, but very small!

It seems to me however, that while there's always something interesting around (Barbie and Superhero figures in recent years), the whole concept has lost something since MPG took over the management of the - now web-linked - toys? I guess trends, tastes and fashions move on!

I haven't even looked these up, recent additions; I think the one on the left is Kinder, but the one on the right may not be? I really don't care; it'll all come out in the wash, and while accuracy at that level will be needed on the A-Z Blogs, it's not so necessary here where narrative nonsense is fine!

Anyway, that's the [fun] horror stuff I've got for now, it's a few hours later than I said it was about to be in an eMail about three, four (?) hours ago, but i had to go out, then the cat puked - very Halloween! Something else tomorrow, and cheers to Brain, Chris and Theo for the other stuff earlier today. Happy Halloween!

T is for Tom & Jerry!

Twice in a week would give you the impression the world is awash with Tom & Jerry figurines, but with a few erasers out there somewhere maybe, and the inevitable sticker sheets, this could be about it, with the other day's pencil tops, Corgi's battling carts and the Marx figures we looked at a lo-o-o-o-onng time ago! Top of second image down.

Actually, a quick search on feebleBay reveals lots of Tom & Jerry stuff, of which several are from Kinder and we will look at the 'swoppet' plug-together's (Oh, are they stick-figures?) some other time, but these Kinder solids were to-hand the other day so I took a few quick shots.

All from the same set, we get them picnicking and surfing! Issued in most jurisdictions at various times between 2003 (K) and 2006 (MTG), they aren't particularly uncommon and 'book' at about €3, but check the cake-decoration section (or whatever your trick is for finding stuff) of evilBay for unattributed ones and you'll find them cheaper! They are all two- or three-part clip-together.

Five of eight, I'm missing Tom bar-b-que'ing and both of them weight-lifting, but listing things I'm not showing you is a bit silly isn't it? Listing things someone else had already shown and which I can't show you would be even sillier, huh?!!

S is for Sloppy Research?

Was he going to have a pop at me, but got so old, stoned on med's or drunk that he totally forgot to? Hahahahahahaha! You can't make it up, and there he is scuttling out from under my shadow to tread on my coat-tails again! There are bars in Berlin where my arse is a bigger legend.

 

I have these, as I think I mentioned more than once when covering this stuff over the last few weeks, at the moment they are back in storage, but they'll come out again and and I still won't be that interested in the dates, except on the A-Z entry, if and or when I get around to it!

 

I also have scans of a rival publication which employed square thumbnails of the figures rather that the line-ups in these, while we covered Paul Revere here, 12 years ago - with pictures! Too funny!

I is for Is It Just Me, or Is It Getting Chilly?

We had two heat-waves here, the first breaking three-year old 'new' records by 3°, a trend which if it continues would render large parts of Europe, Asia and the SE of Britain uninhabitable by humans - in a heat-wave - within about 20 years? But after the second, not so hot but more humid, so equally uncomfortable heat-wave, the weather has gone rapidly downhill, and it's got quite chilly, but then I guess it is October, maybe the summer just lasted too long!

Anyway, seems like a good excuse to get the cold-weather gear out and check it over, these are all Kinder; 1980's/90's, and they are ready for anything the climate throws at them! 20/25mm at the top, 28/30mm compatible in the middle and a decet stab at 54mm with the 'steckfigur' at the bottom, who has lost the backs of his skis, and his boots . . . sniff! The silver blob was off some cartoon thing; long-lost.

I have a blue/white one who has his boots, so if I ever find the missing ski sections I will be able to re-shoot them both in some sort of order? All polyethylene, and with moveable arms/articulated waist, they are a useful addition to Timpo and/or Britains polar explorer/Esquimaux/Inuit sets.

There's the colour reversed version of this on evilBay at the movement, he's more of a novelty toy, and winter-sports rather than polar explorer or native hunter, but fun, Kinder, polystyrene and possibly a bit earlier, although still 1980's I think?

A is for Audit of Alien Astrofarers!

Yeah, well, with well-over four thousand posts now, the thesaurus needs to be dug out occasionally! It's a brief look at a small sample of Kinder and Kinder-like Aliens to finish a flying visit to the subject!

One of the first shots I took off evilBay about 18 years ago (the date on the image is the 1st of January 4501?!!), these were late 1980's I think, and there were equally cartoony, mounted knights and cowboys in the line, I should have a couple somewhere, but they weren't in the main pile when it pased accros my bows the other day; Robot's on Robot horses!

They are small, about 28/30mm equivalent, but the horses - particularly - are styled very-much like the Hing Fat 'Galaxy Cowboys', while the riders are styled like Arco's or Pikit/Gordy Bi-Tron robots so could be used as scout/reconnaissance units in an army of rack-toy robots!

These seem to be quite common, in that I have three and keep seeing them on feeBay, but the other item in the pair/set seems harder to track down, it was a similar balance/move toy. Three aliens in mini-saucers, 2000's I think, up to no-good!

This was from 2002, and while the creature looks like the Aliens in the previous mobile, the fact that the other member of the pair has polar-bears (with the biggest in-scale mushroom-house you ever saw!), he may be meant to be a more earthly thing like a caterpillar? But he's taking photographs, so I suspect an Alien reconnaissance team for the saucer aliens!

2010's for these and the next lot, I meant to get more of them at the time, but budget constraints and the randomness of 'blind-bag' purchasing curtailed that idea! I don't know if they are Aliens or robots or battle-suits, but they were quite cool given how shit Kinder toys got for a while once MPG had taken-over the toy side of the Ferrero chocolate eggs.

They are semi-action figure with swiveling legs and ball-socket arms to give them a surprising level of articulation for such small things and - of course - the arms can be swapped around between 'platforms'.

These came out at around the same time as the previous lot and are only spoiled by the googley-eyes which could be removed to make them more spacey 'mech's'? They are more sort of junkyard, or anthropomorphic robots? I can't remember if there's an element of interchangeability with them and didn't try while photographing, I think if there is any, it's minimal and accidental?

Another one from Metro (Leoni), and I can't remember if I found him somewhere, or if he was in the lot from Peter Evans, but thanks to Peter anyway, he gave me a bag-full, most of which may never appear here! You never-know though; there's - hopefully - plenty of RTM's, or capsule 'round-ups' still in my future?

Not sure if he is meant to be a robot, an Alien or an ice-monster? And he's the sort of 40mm LRG (soft rubberised polymer, or 'elastomer') you will find credited to gum-ball machines, because he was to be found in gum-ball machines, when he wasn't in a budget chocolate egg!