S is for Seen Elsewhere - Kinder Figures

Shown on a Facebook group a while back, and time to get them up here and out of Picasa, many of these Kinder figures have been seen here before, in mixed lots, donations or as bit & pieces! But these are all complete, as far as I know, and blurb can be kept to a minimum! These are mostly from the mid-late 1980's or early-mid 1990's.

 

Diver on the left, mostly polystyrene, an RP-sourced archer on the right, in a polyethylene, but they are starting (like a lot of RP stuff) to get brittle now.

 

Three musketeers, also Res.

 

Fencers.

 

American egg-ballers!

 

Alien, also Res Plastics, also getting brittle now, you have to be very careful of the joins.

 

Small-scale astronauts, and their means of locomotion!

 

Panthers, that are pink!

 

Wellingtonian . . . Enemy dragoon, I think?

 

Charley's, one's Kinder (soldier), the other Hong Kong or Italian copy?

 

Speedy Gonzalez!

 

Ice skaters.

 

Different set from the above, same trope!

 

Caricatures.

 

Two from the 1970's on the left, a later caricature figure on the right.

B is for Bruder . . . Kinder, Hans Postler et al . . .

And to be honest, Giodi should have Kinder's slot above as they made them, and they don't only seem to have supplied Kinder, but other people as well, while my 'third source' is Cose Progetti Promozionali, who may be designers (albeit copyists) as well as importers?

This is a very small sample of the Bruder mini space vehicles, and there are quite a few more, but this is an overview which will call on the past finds of Moonbase Central too! As far as we know Bruder were first with these as part of a wider range of otherwise civil vehicles in a distinctive red-yellow-orange-blue-green scheme.

Woodsy found this set in Rosita branding from Spain, which seems to contain Bruder product in different colours; Bruder state on their website that the confectionery trade were good customers for their small toys, so they clearly did a fair-bit of contract manufacturing.

And here's a Hans Postler set (last image) in standard Bruder colours

And there's more here

While these are the Giodi for Kinder copies, again, not sure it's all of them, but you can see (with the lander) how reverse colour versions are available. Although when I say copies, they are all new vehicle designs, but based on and aping the Bruder colours.

Flight-line; Bruder and two Giodi/Kinder, folding/swing-wings, the Bruder are about 50% bigger by mass, and probably wouldn't fit in Kinder eggs, or at least some of the parts wouldn't?

Giodi clone; the paper slip states Cose Progetti Promozionali (Modena, Italy - 'Promotional project things') and they are straight-out copies, slightly smaller still, you can see a few differences between the Giodi and Cose (bottom right), but they are the same design, and made in China (possibly the Tennison Trading in the links above?) so imports which other capsule providers may have handled.

Interestingly some are copies of Giodi (swing-wing sample), some are copies of the Bruder models - the Lander for instance.

A is for Astronauta Spaziale Dall'Italia

Sticking with Kinder, but going vintage, I didn't know whether to run through these in a vague chronological order of issue, but in the end the comparison shot rather dictated that we go by size, from the largest on the left below, to the smallest, and adding an intermediate size I found in an older folder!

So, that comparison, from the left we have RP (or Giodi?)'s 54mm'ish, semi-swoppet / swivel figures, then a more robotic figure around 50mm, the 40-mil' cartoony one (also RP I think?), two vintage 1970's polystyrene figures filling the 30mm slot, another 'styrene figure from 1988/89 in 25mm/1:72nd and a slightly later/more recent 20mm/1:76th scale figure, probably in polypropylene, as the grey figure is; the larger blue and the cartoon chap both being polyethylene.

So, back to the swivels, who are plug-together with interchangeable boots, helmets and belts. I only have a small sample, although there may be a few in storage, helmets came in black, grey or silver, with belt/backpack and boots only found in the former two colors so far, no silver? While bodies were in sky-blue, an 'aqua' shade (not clear in the lower shot due to camera flash) or white.

I don't know how many versions there were (the reference books are also in storage!), but the insert sheet will have had the 'official' configurations, which can thenn be multiplied by swapping boots, belts or helmets - notice also the suits differ too!

Again, my sample doesn't do them justice, they came with about four different vehicles of frankly rather Heath Robinson'eque perambulation! They have face-visors, suggesting humans (or humanoids) but have a rigidity to their suits which also gives them the appearance of robots. usually white or silver, there are other colours which may be from the originator factory.

The cartoon ones were part of a larger range which included cowboys and Indians, sportsman, firefighter, chef, bull-fighter etc. Apart from the swapping of headdresses (for no real benefit or reason) the swoppet element here is just to get them to fit in the capsule!

Like the robotic ones above, these come with a variety of vehicles, but all more conventional moon-rover or swamp-buggy designs. The robots - and I think these are robots - come in silver or white (I've swapped the audience around), while the vehicles come in silver or off-white/pale grey. Size-wise. they are between the next lot and the last lot at around 35mm.

These used to have a ridiculous valuation in the O-Ei-A guides, but they do turn up, and I think Peter or Chris included one in a donation a while ago, which may not be in this pair? Painting was a stab-and-hope in seven colours!

Stop me if I'm boring you with a duplicate story . . . oh, it's a Blog, you can't; sorry! I can't remember if I've told this story before or not. My first proper job after leaving the army (I'd had a few months temping) was as a tractor driver for the Parks department over at Rushmoor, and one day I'd got back to the depot with ten minutes or so to 'finish' and there was no way Henry (my 'chargehand') would let me go early.

So I was kicking back in the little staff-room they had there, probably drawing on a Camel, next to the greenhouses when I noticed the blue satellite/radar dish on the table, a quick check revealed one of the solar-panels in the ashtray and the game was on, the astronaut was next, at which point I knew I had a winner, and after about five minutes I had assembled all the parts! I think I even had the capsule and paper slip, long-gone now!

Someone had obviously had a Kinder Egg in his lunch box and had made a big thing of poo-poo'ing the toy and destroying it by chucking it about the staff-room, so the rest of the crew didn't take the piss (I took my lunches in the cab - on the job/site), you see - toxic masculinity, it's a real thing, if 'the wife' put it there, in his lunch-box; they probably had kids - take it home for them?

Anyway, that's how I can date this with the reference books in storage to 1988/89! Took me about twenty years to find the other satellite, and both have the same figure whose right hand extends to a spigot which locates in a hole in either vehicle (space ship?), so they can float on a moon-walk if you hang them from a ceiling! There were only the two in the set (on the insert sheet) they are both quite fictional I think, and don't join to each other.

While I think this chap is from the 1990's or early 2000's, but I can't remember what he went with! He's a dense polythene or polypropylene, like nylon anyway!

12 is for Days of Christmas - Day One

♪♫ Trains . . . and boats and planes ♫♪♪. . . . . . . .aaand...er...diggers! Burt, you forgot the diggers!

Anyone wishing to correspond with Francesco with a view to swapping can get in touch with him through me, just email me for his contact details.

B is for Butter Nut....and Brown...

...and red and yellow and orange and green and blu'hoo! No, not blue, blue and grey are another rule of ACW, but today we're looking at the other colours - well; the few in my collection!

Starting with everyone's favourites; the Britains Swoppets and Herald ACW confederates, although the rule is Blue for Federal Union and grey for Confederate, they being the typical colours of a mass body of either side's armies - despite both sides having units in the other colour scheme - it is also accepted that 'butter nut' is a confederate colour, as they tended to have the greater logistical and financial problems when equipping their forces, and the fall back neutral colour was commonplace, particularly among poorer units or later in the war.

As the civil war is a lot older than the First World War, and people are already arguing over badges and patches from that war it's no surprise that there's a lack of consensus over what butter nut was, but suffice to say the three main sources seem to have been (and in no particular order); sun-bleached/sun-burned grey following summer service or other weathering, late Confederate Government issue 'suits' in a nut-dyed grey that rapidly turned a brownish shade and home-spun neutral fabrics.

Above we see the butter nut versions of the Swoppet figures on the left and what I'm assuming is a home-painted Herald figure on the right.

The blue/grey 'rule' (with its butter nut addendum) is allied to the red for Zouaves, Mounties and Garibaldi's red-shirts rule, with minor - obvious - rules like the red shirts for post-ACW cavalry, yellow for Confederate artillery and cavalry, green for the Irish Brigade &etc...being the norm of the gaming table.

However the above are wacky colours because I think they are Kiosk toys and Kiosk toys were always wacky colours. They seem to be copies of Reamsa 7th Cavalry (another rule is that post-ACW cavalry can be used for the earlier conflict!) rather than original Reamsa figures.

The lower figure is a Cherilea 'Custer' from a small range of single moulding solids they did (others were a knight, American Indian, Life Guard etc...), his Confederate colour may be original (sans paint), but I suspect he's one of the unpainted, 1990's re-issues? His horse has lost it's tail!

Top left is a Hong Kong copy ('copy' is paying it too much credit!) of a Timpo solid in a fetching brown with yellow saddle - so gotta-be Confederate! Next to him is another HK pirate, except this pirate is a Deetail ACW figure.

The Italian 'Kit Carson' could be a Kinder figure, but equally could be a little boxed pocket-money toy by Giodi, we looked at his true Confederate pal at the bottom of this post here.

The last group are re-issues from the Marx moulds of the late 1980s (?), and for unpainted war gaming give us four Confederate figures in three shades of butter nut, an Union Irish Brigade figure, a Union Artillery out-rider and err...a ghost!
 

The more modern/current companies have a four-colour, blue, grey, red and butter nut rule, producing all or some of each range in any of the colours. Above some of the lovely sculpts done by Peter Cole of Replicants for Marksmen which we looked at in small scale last December.

Below them are one (middle) from Accurate, and two from Imex - but they may be commission pieces run in these shades for the likes of CTS or Weston's?

G est pour la Guerre Civile

Having covered both Cherilea and Timpo albeit not fully, it seems to make sense to look at some of the other swoppet types before moving on to pastures new. These are all small samples, and a lot are 'unknown', but they give a flavour of what else is out there.

Another British firm; Charbens, did a set of swoppets which are clearly Timpo rip-offs, as kids we always thought these were better Hong Kong production due to the ridiculous pistol holster/belt. The flag's a belter though, bit of paint and it would knock the Timpo guidon into a cocked hat! No Union yet - I'm afraid, but they were the same mouldings with blue shirts.

These are a common kind of Hong Kong pirate, again taken from Timpo and possibly some connections with Linda or Blue Box, but it's such a firm 'don't know' I'll not be putting either name in the tag list. I do have somewhere images of HK ACWswoppets - that could be these - under another name entirely, if I find them I'll update this post in pink!

Very similar - even to the plug-in boots, this chap is by Transogram. Several of these HK sources adopted the double belt-loop and over system in vinyl for the braces that replaced the actual leather or canvas belts used in the civil war, this was due entirely to Timpo's influence and lead!

This guy is actually quite a good moulding from the waist up. A small HONG KONG on the top of the base helps separate him from all the similar figures. The third hole in the base is for the running legs that came with some of the Cowboys and Indians in this range.

Of the four HK sets looked at so far these are the best, they also have the plug-in boots but are otherwise very good copies of the Timpo originals, even down to the guidon, leading some unscrupulous dealers to try passing it off as Timpo - it actually has much cruder stitching and an almost unreadable 'th' after the 7.

These may be by Ellem for Cherilea, but I don't know so for now the same note applies as to the first lot (re. Linda/Blue Box) and once I've identified the Ellem bases, it may all become a little clearer?!

Dec. 28th 2023 - Now known to be produced by Merehall who use an MH mark on their packaging.

 

This 45/50mm lot are more Britians based, with PVC vinyl-rubber torsos on ethylene legs. Origins seem to be half Herald (bugler) and half Britains Swoppets. At some point the torsos were used on larger legs making 60mm giants - far-left in the lower left image.

I love what they've done to the Britains lying firing pose, reminds one of the Airfix prone or mounted poses that Montaplex put on bases!

"Lookout! Observation balloon!"

"I'll poke you with my big stick!"

"Go on then...I'll get my sabre out while you ignore yours shall I?"

"Blame the Photographer for posing us like this"

"Hmm, all right, I blame the photographer...you're still a long time dead"

Elastolin Yankee waves a red-flag to a Giodi Reb-bull...ha ha - I shouldn't be allowed! I think he's one of a set made for Kinder in the 1970's. These are both good quality figures - as you'd expect from European manufacturers, although the Giodi figure has some disturbing similarities with some of the HK production?