D is for Donation - Peter - Sci-Fi & Fantasy

Probably the best subsection after historical, for general interest, and new figures, due, as much as anything, to the large number of die-cast or big-box play set enhancers, or small run/low pose-number figure sets; drivers/pilots and play-accessories, novelties, or game-playing pieces, which turn up, and both donations have stuff which is new to me!

 

And we'll start with these which are all new to me, allowing for a couple of missing figures, they would seem to be a 48-count, split into four sides, each of 3x4 poses, although some of the poses are very similar.

 

Something of Groot, or Ents here?

 

Flamers, if you study the hands you'll see they are different sculpts - just!

 

Likewise with the second and fourth poses here.

 

Is it Earth, Fire, Air and Water?

 

A simple 'CHINA' is the only clue to these, who would have required a quite large bag or box. They are a softish PVC-alike polymer, possibly a silicon, but not the old glossy type of Diener erasers? Anyone recognise them, I don't think they can be that old, and may be/have been, from a game?

 

Two probable game-players here too, either side of a magnetic ger'nome of unknown origin. That's 16 out of 16 totally new items! Good start!

 

This is all new as well, or is it? We may have seen it here as a 'paint-your-own' shelfie, possibly from/in The Range, as I suspect that's what it is, I wondered if it might be/also be glow-in-the-dark, but it isn't/doesn't.

 

HG or DFC types, they all need a bigger sort out, as quite apart from three or four companies issuing this stuff through the 1980's, mainly, there were also sub-piracies, and base variations, which all need to be properly annotated.

 

I think we've seen these before, one Halloween, or in the build-up to, and despite the disparate nature of the and/or the materials they are made from, I seem to recall they were all the contents of one big-bag, from one of the UK's major supermarkets. It was a few years ago now, and recent years have seen no similar offerings.

 

Grist-to-the-mill here, but the more of these which come in, the more paint/finish variations pop-up, especially in the treatment of helmet visors, and the amount of paint on the figures, NASA-types, from four or five sources, here we see the smaller, believed to be Pioneer (for Realtoy/Dacron) and K&M (Wild Republic) sculpts.

 

A trio of MPC clones to be sorted into the collection, and a number of the Mon Desir chocolate egg premiums, but four sculpts we didn't see last time, so possibly-probably an earlier 1st, or later, 2nd tranche?

 

Five of the Lik Be (LB) spacemen, these are the later - Clifford era - version, following the paint scheme of earlier issues, but simplified (no green air-tanks, unpainted bases) with no paint on the back halves of the models, and the strangely blue-eyes; really late sets being unpainted.

 

And finally . . . an ornamental ger'nome, of the fairground side-stall prize variety - hoop, hook or shoot the ducks, fish or clowns, get a ger'nome, to take home! A solid chunk of polystyrene, decorated by automated or stenciled air-brush, it's very much in the same style as the Irish passenger-jig we saw a few years ago, as a PW show-purchase.

 

And, when I said it was a month to the next show the other day, it was actually two months, but now, it's only about six-weeks! Thanks to Peter Evans for all the above, does anyone know who the first lot are, or the pair with the magnetic Gnome, or for that matter, what he is?

P is for Polymer Plunder Package - Sci-Fi and TV

We find ourselves looking at another favourite subsection of mine, the Sci-Fi/ & Fantasy stuff, although there's some media-related in here, there's also some in the final 'mixed' post.

 

Both seen before, I suspect, a Poundland Pterodactyl and an old novelty skeleton.

 

Ger'Nomes! A probably Euro-premium or Wundertüte, with a thick layer of paint to be removed and what I think might be the Tobar John Major jobbie in the middle, but either side is some even-more interesting fellows, if more pixy'ish! A multipart PVC one to the left which I suspect is another Xandria piece from the Netherlands, and, on the right, an ex-keyring chappie, who may have been a Leprechaun, but he's not really green enough?

 

Among the small-scale stuff were two totally new to me/Blog/Hobby astro-alien types (red and green on the left) which are probably small 1 or 2 ¢/p type gum-ball machine's capsule prizes? The 12-wheeled micro-rover is in the style of Micromachines, but from somewhere else I think (anyone know?), and the blue chap is another premium/gumball prize type, being a reduced-scale version of the old Manurba sculpts,

 

A handful of post-Giant stuff includes a red alien from the big bags issued by Novelty Headquarters Inc., and is a useful find! While we have one of the blow-moulded derivatives of them behind, the eyes are everything with these, and he has both! Strangely, despite being on the blog lots of times now, some people were struggling to ID them the other day despite being followers of-, and [occasional] commenters on- the Blog, almost . . . deliberate amnesia!

 

When they are that desperate to post the same thing days later, they are feeling threatened by you, plagiarism, even of ideas, themes or subjects is the sincerest form of flattery!

 

I know, but this was a half-full folder! Two modern takes on cavemen, and another of the small ones in polystyrene which turn up from time to time, I now believe they came as scenic accessories, with an Aurora type range of model-kits from Life-Like, which were actually inherited from Pyro, so could be either?

 

The mini blue 'superhero' came as companion pieces to larger ones on Pound Shop cards a few years ago (probably still a few out there somewhere), a Cylon Warrior from Mattel's 1978 Battlestar Galactica line, I have the Earth pilot somewhere I think, a lovely Terminator, sans arm, but possibly an unlicensed rip-off piece, and an MB Games piece courtesy of the Nottingham Mafia!

 

The Superman keyring was a very generous inclusion in the package from Chris, as I think I know guys on Podstalions who would swap an arm for something both vintage and DC! In the middle is . . . a dough/cookie cutter? Something like that, infant crafts of some kind, but figural, and apparently glowing with radiation! The Orange guy may be a racing driver, and I vaguely remember doing a show-repot on a company at Kensington Olympia who had a bunch of similar figures?

 

As well as the Giant knock-offs, there was a smattering of the Lik Be (still LB, for obvious reasons) robot/alien types, always useful, and in this early, clean/sharp state, possibly HG Buck Rogers fayre? Many thanks again, to Chris Smith, for sending these, for me to share with the rest of you.
 

S is for Shelfies - Morrison's

Morrison's supermarkets have taken a leaf out of the 'George at Asda' type business model, and invented the in-house Nutmeg branding for what is collectively, or sometimes rather euphemistically called 'homewares', and among them are the inevitable Poundland-type tat, of which a few are always figural, and I shot these back in April;

The world is groaning under the weight of this stuff, but, if it's figural, I have a sense of duty to annotate it when I encounter it! And, let's be honest, the picture has been the same in toys since the first Tramp Steamer arrived from Hong Kong filled with cheap polymer knock-offs, 70-odd years ago!

It's pored resin, which is pretty stable, so on one level will last forever, whether at the bottom of the ocean or in land-fill, without doing much obvious harm (except possibly confusing future alien archaeologists), but the trouble is, it chips easily, and those chips end-up being ground under-foot into micro polymers which will end up in the environment and/or the food chain.

It's no longer a question of if or when you get micro-polymers in your body, but how much is there already, and the family cats, dogs, local squirrels etc . . . Butterflies were down so much this year an emergency has been declared.

Mini pot-Gnomes, about 90/100mm maybe, they have those weird rods in them which I haven't managed to identify the material of, they may be a coated steel or something more exciting/exotic like a reinforced carbon-fibre?

 

I rather liked this, the mouse is a bit big for role-play, but if you fantasy wargame in 54mm (and some do), this could have a use somewhere in the background! That's it, a few bits I saw out and about, a while ago now!

G is for Gnomeville!

I was lucky enough to shoot the gnome Village at Chez Evans a few years ago, but following some natural event, they have moved to a new town, South-West of the old metropolis, and I got to shoot it the other day, so, a bit of fun . . . 

 

Overview

Lesbian gnomes, off the Pride!

Newer houses have eco-roofs!

Top right is the same house Peter sent me, to start my own Gnome house 

once I've settled somewhere!

Maybe the streets of London are paved with gold

or have they found a Roman horde?

I think this might be the posh-end of town?

Village centre!

Guardian Fairy!

 

Many thanks to Peter for letting me shoot the inner sanctum!

C is for Christmas - At Poundland

From Hobbycraft (see previous/'older' post), I moseyed-on over to that there Poundland to see what their festive offerings looked like, and was pleased to find A) a few bits worth Shelfie'ing for you, loyal readers, to look at and B) a couple of bits worth purchasing for the stash.

I wasn't ever going to buy these, they are shite, they have been covered in more shite, they are priced as if they are far better quality shite than the shite they actually are! But . . . and it's a valid 'but', they will appear in those 20/40/50p baskets in charity shops in a few years time, either in this condition, or so tatty they can be stripped back to the (probable) neutral granule (think - greyish-white) plastic and re-painted or left plain; a generic cake-decoration style pumpkin coach!

The wheels are actually a leftover of European margarine premium/US Wilton cake decoration coaches of the 1950's, but in those cases they worked, indeed the European one came both assembled in a mail-away box and loose as a clip-together 'kit of parts'.

A pair of small 'nutcracker' tree-decorations, very tempted and I might go back for them, but two of each is more than I would want, so needs some thought, but as I haven't seen many worth shooting, and because we did a lot of them a while back, here they are!

I did grab these for a pound of your Earth money, knowing I had the other five in the bag and having surrendered my opposition to resin years ago! An eclectic mix, but I think they are meant to be put in hollow-plastic 'capsule' baubles which seem to be making a come-back, having last been seen in numbers - in the nineteen-seventies!

Reasonable sculpts for what they are and what they are charging, and three Christmas tropes ticked-off, birds, deer and bears - polar! they would all benefit from a bit of home-paint though?

These are also resin, and a quid-a-go, with a gingerbread man (who looks more like a teddy bear), a very happy snowman, similarly jocular Santa Claus and two ger'nomes; one tobogganing and the other opening (or wrapping?) presents. There is one other - sixth - sculpt . . .

. . . a grizzly bear, carrying a Christmas tree with two birds - probably complaining about the loss of their nest! It came home with me, it's fun! Again a resin casting, base apparently sanded after painting!

All the above in Poundland right now. I would add that there was nothing in Wilkinson's I would give house-room to, and apart from the astronaut we looked at a week or so ago, nothing in ASDA or B&M; they have plenty, but it's a matter of taste/preference with these, isn't it?

I haven't been to look in Tesco, and our Sainsbury's isn't big enough, neither apparently are our local Flying Tiger's both of which aren't getting the bauble issue this year, bigger stores are and I may try to get over to Guildford who I'm assured - by the Basingrad staff - do have some.

F is for Follow-up - Bits & Bobs . . .

. . . or a bloody eclectic trio right now! A few things which pertain to or reference previous posts here at Small Scale world and we have figures, animals and scenics!

I took a family 'group-shot' with the two Peter Evans sent me, before I sent him the other one which Chris Smith had sent me! I think they are more Leprechaun than 'true' gnome (or dwarf!) and while they are Hong Kong, seem to be 'after' the output of Fontanini, although whether it's homage or like-for-like pricey I'm not sure?

Both sides and different view-points.

So; we're up to four of six, which means we're up to eight of twelve! I picked up another of the Poundland PVC animal sets the other day, sadly I'm hardly going to Poundland now (over a month since the last visit) as they've stopped doing my vape juice, but I discovered it in ASDA, so I go there instead, the [Covidiot] risk is the same, so one venue is enough! But it means the last two may remain elusive?

Chris Smith sent these in as a follow-up to the sentry-box posts, and they are fascinating, marked as you see, I suspect they are from a wooden or tin-plate fort or box-accessories from a die-cast vehicle set rather than 'toy soldiers' per se, and give us another tag! See below!

I recognised them when I saw them, but had no notes on them, I suspect I saw them in JB's collection years ago, I'm pretty sure they were the same green (with a red painted roof, not clear in the above shots), and they were definitely in the same warped or twisted condition, which will be due to instability in what appears to be an early polystyrene, but could be thick celluloid?

Also - having suggested a lack of connection to Lone Star's later plastic toy soldiers, I have a half a thought Slikka may have been mentioned in Plastic Warrior magazine (years ago), but that might be a false memory conflating with the die-cast Togga novelties?

Added later after checking, but before publishing - pp.121 of Norman Joplin's 'Big Book of British Hollow Cast' shows a DCMT set with two lead/hollow-cast guards in these sentry boxes (not, or barely distorted) along with a mounted horse-life-guard hybrid! Presumably all from Harvey, so these were probably DCMT's first foray into plastics as they had previously carried a metal box in the style of Crescent's tin one but in lead.

Makes you wonder if Togga's Woggles weren’t also DCMT?

H is for How They Come In - The Small Envelope!

Wung its way to me it did, no warning had I got . . . Chris Smith kindley thought I hadn't had enough plunder during lockdown, and he was sort of correct, but I spent on FeeBay for a few bits, but he sent a top-up parcel the other day . . .

. . . with some items for other things and some because they've been seen or mentioned, it is that later lot I've shot outside the bag! The rest will appear here in the near future, but you may spot some clues in the above!

Robots; Chris and I managed to ID the Hong Kong red & blue robots he sent just before Covid struck, and by way of continuing the conversation (they will get their own post when I find something in the collection that goes with them and which I thought I'd found but now can't find! Doh!) sent these individuals.

From the left, I thought this was from Robots, but it's from the earlier Iron Giant, the head being worthy of a law-suit over the later film's main characters' I think! Then two PVC Japanese Manga/Anime 'bots, I have little idea over either, but suspect the red one os a Transformer, the white one (a pencil top) possibly from an older franchise like Atomic Boy or Atom man or whatever it was! The final figure is a Kinder astronaut, but he looks robotic with all that silver.

I also received two gnomes needing re-gnhoming! (hey - it's Chris's joke not mine!), a small one which may also be a Kinder, and a larger one, which I told Chris I might offer to Mr Evans of Plastic Warrior magazine, before realising he sent me two others (in my Gnome Village 'starter kit'; see Blog passim) from the same set, so may already have it in his community?

I think the larger one is a Hong Kong copy of an old Fontanini sculpt, but I'm not sure, so don't quote me on that one, just musing out loud, on the posing!

Cheers Chris - keeps me going!