L is for Louche Lucite Layabouts!

We seem to often arrive at Lik Be during Rack Toy Month, and while I tried to resist poking the Northern cow-pat of competitiveness this year, reader Keith Harrison mentioned he had all the missing clear-plastic 'Vitrine' LB robots, of which we saw the other three of, here;

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2023/07/lb-is-for-lik-be.html

 

And he kindly sent some fantastic images of them to the blog; 

 

Family Photo!

 

Base marking - clear as mud, as usual!

 

Wotan's favourite; 'Wotan'!

 

'Rocket Robin', with a partial 'Lobster', whose paint has mostly worn off, but I suspect these may have been decorated with spirit-based art markers, or something equally susceptible to rubbing and fading?

 

Keith also sent this and the next two images, these look like they might be from the same batch/source/origin as the 'eraser' set I got a while back now, as a trio;

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2020/10/s-is-for-serious-score.html

 

But here as a full sextet, and with 'Traffic Cop' being in a semi-transparent dayglo green, rather confirming my suspicion back then, that they are some kind of silicon, not really an eraser rubber, but rather a smudging rubber! However, sold as Dragon Master Fantasy Figures, not erasers like my sample, by what looks to be Tiarri Management Sevices?

 

We've seen these Moon Platoon chaps before, and they were both poor shots, here we can see they are carried by Imperial Toys, (updates to those posts by the time I post this) who, although a US importer, seem to have got a lot of their stuff into the UK, but whether by design, or some back-of-the-warehouse accident I don't know, maybe a buyer's tie-in with one of our novelty importers, like WHC/Success? However, not necessarily this set, just other Imperial stuff.

 

While these are the 'Tesco Finest' version of the sucker 'bots with the - as yet - unascribed mark which may be ATS, AST. STA or SAT, but probably isn't T-anything! I've seen these before, occasionally, so they do seem to have been a 'thing' compared to the commoner ones with airgun blasted blobs of colour, so someone obviously stipulated a better level of paint on their contract? The point here being, it's rare to find them this clean and paint-complete.

 

Many thanks to Keith for all the above, and it got me deep-diving into the image banks to see what was waiting for next-time, which is this time now, or what I could add from the archive;

 

So sticking with the robots first, and this image was sent to another Blog, upon request, many years ago, and got lost in a lack of tagging, or got deleted, it doesn't matter, there's no meaningful relationship with the strange little men over there, now! I suspect the falling-out is more about Bwreakshit than Blogs!

 

We have, in the intervening years, seen all the gaps filled, and then some, but as a guide, it's a new image here at Small Scale World, and from the top shows;

• 54mm hard polystyrene, chrome-type finish
• 25mm hard polystyrene, chrome-type finish
• 54mm hard polystyrene, brushed-aluminium finish
• 25mm soft polyethylene, gunmetal plastic (as supplied to Culpitt and HG)
• 54mm sucker types (marked with a crude HONG KONG)

Here's a gum-ball capsule-machine window card, with 'Stern Gang' as what looks like a pencil top (bottom right), in the same flexible silicon as the sucker chaps. Note also, the cracker-toy motorcycle, the troll, the other robot and a bisque Wade Whimsy knock-off, among other things . . . the mini abacus!

While this looks like the 25mm, polyethylene, gunmetal plastic ones, as Spaceimens! Also supplied to Culpitt and HG Toys, so we have them as play-set accessories, cake decorations and gum-ball prizes! We only need to find them in Christmas crackers for the full "House"!

Which brings us to the Astro-Spacemen* element of that/those original donation post/s, with the same treatment, we have;

• 54mm hard polystyrene, gunmetal plastic, painted both sides
• 54mm & 25mm soft polyethylene, gunmetal plastic, painted one side
• 54mm soft polyethylene, various colours, painted both sides
• 54mm soft polyethylene, white plastic painted one side (as supplied to Clifford)

* I have mentioned on several occasions I have trouble pigeonholing these, as they are armed (spacemen), but wearing NASA kit (astronauts)!

 

• 54mm & 25mm soft polyethylene, various colours, unpainted
• 54mm Nylon or a propylene, and 25mm (as supplied to MPC, Pipin and Tri-Ang), all finished in silver or gold chrome-effects, which can be removed with a five-second dip in TFR or oven cleaner.
• 25mm hard polystyrene, painted matt-white. 

The previous two lots, all being LB (for Lik Be) production, while this last lot is mostly clones/copies/piracies, with the LB additional poses for the MPC, Pipin and Tri-Ang issues, off to the bottom left, which are taken from MPC's own figures, split between their 54mm and 70mm sculpts.

 

Also, the pair between the first two rows are the 54mm, soft polyethylene fakes, and marked Hong Kong, under domed bases, one pretending to be an LB original, even down to the paint, the white one being from the Shimmel blister-carded Flash Gordon sets. The four more obvious rows are;

• 50mm, soft polyethylene, various colours, unpainted
• 23mm, soft polyethylene, various colours, unpainted
• 50mm painted & 25mm unpainted, both polyethylene soft plastic
•  25mm hard polystyrene, brushed-aluminium finish

There's a more blobby, silver/gunmetal one below that last row, of unknown origin, and an unpainted figure above the MPC group. What sets that last row apart from the other LB output, is that they are unmarked, as are all the MPC mini-clones, but, a lot of the Tri-Ang supplied ones were marked. However, the late Nylon/'Propylene 54mm ones, still in bakers and cookshops in the 2000's, were also unmarked, so a late thing, or a Culpitt (or similar) takeover thing?

We have since (recently) added 45mm copies in at least two plastics, so both sets of previous overviews (and these originals) will need to be superseded by a new round of posts, in a year or two!

 

One of the sources of the - at least four types of - sucker figure, are to be seen on these gum-ball sample cards, from 'Liberty', and, at 25¢, not that long ago? Also of interest are hard plastic 'vitrine' animals at the tops of the cards, micro-mini dinosaurs and sports 'monsters', both probably of a PVC-alike material.

 

While the whole bunch appear to be available here, as Star Warriors, on an unbranded, generic card, I think we've seen better images of them close-up before now, but these cards carry their own nostalgia! And we have all six robots and two poses of the Astro-Spacemen.

 

And, thanks again for Keith's kicking off this deep dive! Best rack toys ever . . . in the moment!

O is for Other Capsule Eggs

More standard egg shapes here, some with chocolate, some without, along with a blind bag (Lego) and a Tomy 'gum' ball!

Bandwagoning from Schleich here, and why not, but they're following Lego's blind-bagging band-wagon, not the original Kinder, although that was itself only a commercial formalisation of gum-ball machine prizes, with better quality toys and a chocolate egg!

Bayala is very-much the 'pink & purple' line in Schleich's catalogue, and these eggs, with no edibles, seem to contain one of twelve winged kitten-dragons in ten sculpts, again, not really a bit of me, but they will come in, in mixed lots over time, and it's always nice to know what you're dealing with!

I think we've seen something like these before (from Dracco Candy of Spain) and I castigated them on that occasion, well, I had another go and these are an equal  rip-off with little in them beyond shite, but the jelly-beans were OK! I've lost the brand on this one, but it's around somewhere.

Picked these up in a discount supermarket in North London when I visited Peter Evans, back before lock-down . . . three years, god! Aras Eggo Toys from Turkey, they also do larger sweet-container eggs with thematic branding - army tanks, puppies, Cindy-doll knock-offs &etc.

The toy is a small, simple 3-part jet-fighter, made in China, which I thought I'd shot assembled, but obviously not! While the egg is - for me - a preferable all-chocolate, to that sickly white stuff with makes up half a Kinder egg.

I've had a go at BIP (Holland) before, as well; their Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle egg was a disappointment, and that story continues with this jump on the art / designer-toy bandwagon, with an Ugly Dolls button-badge, mini-sticker sheet and those barely edible chalky candies.

I should caveat my attack with the point that I'm coming from the angle of looking for figurals - some kids love stickers . . . and badges, and will be well-happy with this as a pocket-money treat!

Safer ground with Tomy's capsule toys, large dispensers in shopping precincts (malls) and some retailers (The Entertainer always has a bank of them near the tills or the entrance), and here we have two of the Incredibles from Disney-Pixar.

Finally, there's these from Lego, their blind-bag minifigures, I got the mad Doctor Bunsen Honeydew, but would like the band! They'll turn-up on evilBay as full sets of twelve, if they haven't already, some traders buy wholesale and break them down.

M is for Micro Moon-Men and Many Marauding Martian Machines

Just a quickie, as they are definitely at the infant-toy end of the spectrum, but fun nevertheless!

We've looked at the mini wargame sets from Silvercorn now, but they also did an infant series, although when I say 'series' there's no evidence for others sets, but with three in the 'realisteic' line, I'm imagining maybe a dino' set and farm or zoo attached to this infant-toy line?

Two useful bits; nice space tank, which would paint-up well as a fire-tower for Micro-Machine Hoth figures? And a useful six-wheeled jobbie which again is just big enough to be a one-man battle-taxi in even 28mm role play - Banana Splits 'v' the Nottingham Mafia's Imperium?

The two figural's; the robot will go well with those looked at recently from SCS Direct, while the human is a chunky infant toy of limited use, unless you need an extremely overweight astronaut for some game or diorama!

I've also picked these up, mostly marked 'Hong Kong' so having some age, but equally factory mint, ex-warehouse or shop stock. Probably from a gum-ball, capsule-machine supplier (they came from the US), but equally likely to turn-up in other 'pocket-money' packagings, elsewere?

Three saucer/space station types and four ships - one of which looks like a jet-propelled, demented R2D2, with shock-absorber legs, I've seen him somewhere as a Japanese 'glico' with an added radar on his head - probably the original sculpt?

My favorite is the crane, which bears a passing resemblance to an old carrier crane from a 1:1200th scale model kit. The cracker/gum-ball/glico type fighter came in with a recent mixed lot from Chris Smith or Peter Evans (posts pending).

P is for Prehistoric Animals

And rather anachronistic, cave-dwelling, humanoid types! Each of which is marked HONG KONG on the handle/shaft of his axe, spear or club. Kent Sprecher credits some to Tim-Mee via either Sinclair gas stations in the 'States or Cracker Jack, but all mine were sourced 'over here'.

I picked this little lot (right-hand image) up over many years in one's and two's and a couple of larger lots that came with the plants, I'm pretty sure that at some point they were issued with the plants (copies of Marx Miniature Masterpiece accessories) but it may be a weird co-incidence? And with the paint and HK mark must be assumed to be Tim Mee copies - a safe assumption!

From the artwork I think we are looking at - clockwise from; Labradoodle Rex, Penguinman, Dimetropuma and Kuthunkacow! They certainly didn't come with plants when issued in the little header-carded (left-hand image), rack toy Prehistoric Animals poly-bags, of which I have . . .

. . . two examples, the contents of each are separately shown in the two images above. You get the three poses of caveman (around 32mm) and six dinosaurs/pterosaurs drawn from a known list of seven sculpts (Kent shows nine from Tim Mee), but with each set adding a new sculpt to my loose sample - there may be more?

They reappear as slightly smaller (30mm), gum-ball machine's capsule prizes (upper row) or Christmas cracker novelties, unmarked, unpainted and with sub-scale animals including something more mammalian (a unicorn-gazelle-goat!) for the cavemen to hunt!

While the lower row are smaller-copies still (28mm) and were all bought in Germany over a couple of years, so were probably wundertüten, or something similar from elsewhere in Europe; sobres/kiosko (Spain), bazaar (France)?

These were bough at the same times as the five smaller ones and from the same sellers, but may not/probably don’t go with them, the figures are a soft polyethylene (as the other two types were), while these animals are a harder polypropylene or ABS type material.

Finished to a better standard and with finer engraving, they are larger as well; the plesiosaur is around 60mm, but I suspect they are some kind of premium, or perhaps an early blind-bag collectable? The dimetrodon though is a distorted moulding, probably from too-early removal from the tool, causing shrinkage-fattening and a blister.

I is for Itsy-bitsy Teeny-weeny, Little Gum-ball Capsule Thingies!

Just a quickie, I managed to get a handful of mostly vintage gum-ball prizes . . . humm . . . they're hardly prizes if you've paid a dime or a quarter for them are they . . . I managed to get a handful of mostly vintage, randomly-vended, gum-ball novelties! And you won't often find the phrase 'vintage' here, but these - with one exception - are from the 1940/50's, so deserve the term.

The 'animals' - the larger sub-group; I considered sorting them further into wild and domestic but that would have left me with a fish and/or two birds to deal with so I shot them all together, and it's a reasonable image! From left to right, top to bottom;

Parrot, squirrel, deer, monkey, pig, elephant, lamb, cat, cat. cat, rhinoceros, lion, fish, cockerel, cat.

I think -despite the appearance of celluloid (by base colour) and the fact that they are always called such on evilBay - that these are all polystyrene, with the exception of the black cat, which does seem to be an earlier phenolic plastic.

As far as Christmas crackers go; elephants and cats are still with us, but the rest have dropped by the way-side these days. I particularly like the parrot with its three-colour 'spirit paint' scheme, and the squirrel has had an all-over wash to hide the base colour. I think the thing to the left of the lion is supposed to be a rhino, but it might be the - presumably - now extinct porpoise-dog!

The 'people'; I often watch these on feebleBay and the sample here is mostly of typical or common types, I never buy on-line, the buy-it-now (BIN) prices are ridiculous, and while these were a bargain, they weren't cheap and required a quick haggle.

Two of them are very odd (on the far right) being stamped/die-cut from celluloid-sheet with a blob of molten / liquid / paste 'something - for a face, with two rods of celluloid set into it - for eyes - before it sets solid and are probably earlier production (1940's), I suspect there may also be an element of negative parody or racism about them both?

The opalescent girl is almost fully-round, the yellow/red clown is fully-round and I thought the ship was Noah's ark with a figure [or animal] at each end (hence the inclusion in the 'people' shot) but macro-photography suggests a Viking long ship - if I spent my limited means on my outstanding glasses prescription rather than old toys, I might find the study of the old toys easier, but I'd have no new toys to look at, just  a pair of shiny glasses, so I shall continue with the odd comedy-error of myopic nonsense and buy toys!

The rest . . . all four of them! The ray-gun is relatively modern and quite common on feeBay, the sword/dagger (and possibly the coral) are earlier plastic maybe, the pen (being mightier than the sword, or Trupundbrexit gobshites) is highlighted in two colours, with a turquoise wash and a gold nib . . . and that's it, a quick overview/visit to vintage gum-ball thingies!

U is for Unknown UgL'RG

Not in the Charity shop packs of LRG's we looked at this morning but a purchase from the last Sandown Park toy show; who will go in their - temporary - crate until such time as I get them all out of storage (and married-up), where I know I have a few more of these, a blue one for certain and possibly a green one looking more like Atom Boy or a character from the Godzilla franchise.

Marked China and almost certainly a gum-ball machine prize/toy, I love the salmon-pink colour. Lacking a base, he doesn't have a pencil-top hole either, so - although there's no signs of a loop here - I wouldn't mind a small flutter on his having been available at some point as a key-ring? He may - of course - have been sold as a pencil rubber/eraser?

There are shades of Robocop to his design, but probably more coincidence than any production dating-aid, he's quite recent and - as I hinted at above - if not totally fictional; probably a Japanese Manga/Anime character.

S is for Skeleton Skull Knights

Looking at PVC lumps; these came-in just before Christmas, there are quite a few of them around, and while I have a some in storage (odds and sods) I didn't get sets when they were common first time around, but now they are mostly enjoying re-issues, or what looks like - in this case - copy of copy status!

99p Stores via PMS these are 'Skull Knight Knight's From Hell'...so they're knights then? Apart form a few dodgy round shields there's nothing to place them historically, but as with Zombies, there are no rules, they're make-believe! Shaun looked at them in much greater depth here - I love the psychedelic bag of eight figures!

Eight rather soft poses, leading to some odd posing which requires a bit of hot-water treatment down the clinic! The lower shot compares them with some of the commoner 'other' skeletal warriors, left to right: Dark World (Canada Games), Heroquest (MB Games via Games Workshop) and the Egyptian-looking 100 Piece Army Skeleton Warriors currently available about the place - also including a 'Battling Pirates' set.

Four more of the larger figures, with the painted original which was issued by Playwrite as Tomb Warrior Skeleton Warriors the baseless one is the mounted version. The final figure is one of those odd pencil-tops with a hollow too big for a pencil...I'm guessing they start life as American Halloween cake decorations, and end-up here as bagged rack-toys, or gum-ball prizes?

Various Christmas cracker and gum-ball skeletons, and a Chap Mai 'Skull Fighter' giant next to the 99p Store/PMS one.

Shaun's got more here

F is for Follow-up - Charms

So....I'm opperating out of the libray for a week or two, so no spellchecker (or caps checker!), and while I'm loading lots of articles I'm waiting until I can edit them properly befor I publish, so 30-odd to come, but likely to be the second half of February!

When I popped-in to see Paul (of Plastic Warrior) before Christmas he thrust a bag of bits at me, and a few of them came just a day or two late for the charms post i did in the fluffy, plastic, tat run-up th Christmas! So here is an up-date/addtion to that post.

From the same source as each other but different subjects/scales, these figures seem to be based quite recent and turn-up on evilBay quite a bit, there were some yellow dancers on these last week!. The bandsmen seem to be based on old composition figures?

Added 21-08-2016 Cake Decoration versions now here

The same sculpts as last time but different colours, it would seem they were issued probably as a set of six, with six unrelated items in a set of 12 crackers?



 

I'm building quite a fleet of these now! A couple of them were in Pauls bag, and I dug mine out for the mass 'Dunkirque' effect! And to make myself realise that the one with a blue clothes-tag looking thing has - in fact - got a clothes-tag looking thing, not some weird simplified boatman!

 

Cheers Paul!



L is for Loose Ends

This was loaded two days ago and I meant to publish it yesterday, but Vodafone (the princes of digital-darkness) had other ideas and an Internet Interregnum imposed itself on me for 24 hours...I swear Vodafone couldn't organise themselves out of an old paper bag with a sharpened, flaming, sledgehammer! But they'd still charge you!

The thing about this stuff we've been looking at for the last three weeks or so is that it's universal and never-ending. I popped round Mr. Morehead's yesterday (bit of in-hobby name dropping never hurt!) to pick-up the Hilco special which is available agian after selling-out at the show back in May, and he gave me a bag of bits with some flat charms (same source, three sets) I could add here, or use as a follow-up and that was just after I'd picked up a rubber alien catapult (you can't make it up when novelty shite's involved!) a few minutes earlier for a pound at a charity shop. It just never stops.

But there will be plenty of time to return to Aliens, flats, charms and etcetera! We haven't looked at the mass of Little Rubber guys who come in Gum Ball machines, larger animals, Ninja's, sea creatures, we've looked at some of what's out there, and rather than follow-ups, we'll look at the few bits I've got ready here and call it a day on these for now.

Musical instruments that don't play, one blow-moulded the other styrene, a mini whoopee-cushion, lucky horse-shoes (useful if GI Joe/Action Man is thinking of retraining as a blacksmith!), another chess piece, again - appearing without any of the other pieces - needed to make a game - having ever turning up!

Mirror, yo-yos, another rattle, soft plastic version of the metal wire-puzzles and soft plastic scissors! A magnet...another 'theme' we've not covered in these 50-odd posts, but we've looked at them elsewhere on the blog in the past.

The Quantas suitcase is interesting as presumably it was a re-packed rack-toy of dolls stuff re-branded to Quantas, given to kids to amuse them on long flights? Without the sticker it's just a cheap novelty suitcase, with the sticker it's a branded premium/giveaway!

More plastic tat, more rattles, another lenticular; this time just a very small picture - it's neither a badge nor a charm. A Britains flower-pot: plagurised, a polyethylene bat/gargoyle ring, more charms...The woodpecker toy, which normally comes as a finished toy with a stand and wooden pole was a gum-ball givaway..without instuctions or a  pole, but is made to fit a pencil!

A tourist item, really outside the scope of these articles, but it was in the big lot and is a source of a plastic figure that - without it's die-cast mazak base - is just another piece of plastic kak. It must be quite common as it's the second one into the collection now, which is useful as I always hoped to get a second, so I could remove the figure and use it in some Ray Harryhausen type setting with some Greek Hoplites or a skeleton warrior? Statue of Liberty.

[Later the same day - Andrew Boyce suggested it might be from the Triang-Minic waterline ship range, and it is, so it doesn't really belong in these posts at all! But it's the second one I've seen displayed or sold as an ornament, so that's clearly it's fate...to be unrecognised as a toy, and written-off as a keepsake! I does however mean it's quite common and track-downable!]

Award cups...again we haven't looked at the various 'collectable' sets you could get, [American] football helmets, miniature baseball pennants and the like, I'm sure these come with lots of messages (here; 'golfer' and 'father'), and similar objets existed, but that'll do for tat, shite, caca for a while!

Well...for a day or two! I picked-up some nice figures in the 99p store the other day coming to a blog not a million miles from here in the next few days! Also got some contributions to come, some news, some follow-ups, a PW review, still got those bloody French articles in 'edit' and still got thousands of shots in Picasa, which I seem to add to quicker than I clear! And my 8-gig 'unknown' dongle has red-lined as I file these novelty images, so I need a 16-gig before I can clear the desk-top!

I had plans for a premium article with contributions for tomorrow, but Vodafone's upset the plan (like I ever have a 'plan'!), so we'll see, if I have a day or two off: may I extend my wishes for you to have a happy Christmas and thanks for watching! Now I'm a TV announcer!

You want more? Here's more!

M is for Micro Menagerie

As we saw with the supermarket set the other day, the mini tree crackers sometimes contain mini-novelties, and animals are one of the tropes that go way back to the little Scottie-dogs, poodles and black cats.

Top - Rockers, you get an animal, and a rocker, two-for-one and it came 'free' in a cheap cracker...bargain! Although you may remember when we looked at the dogs the other day, there was a rocker, that was an animal AND a charm, rendering these a bit of a swizz! Britians piracies for the most part?

Middle - With the exception of the yellow running horse and blue zebra-looking thing, these all seem to be Marx sculpts, from the various Miniature Masterpiece play sets with one of the 101 Dalmatians we looked at about a month ago.

Bottom - a few baksheesh ones, the sea-lion is a particularly good sculpt. The duck (with capsule) is also good - for Hong Kong.

Upper - A couple of Nosco or Nosco-knock-offs in a larger size bracket with a reasonable camel in a fetching pink polymer, the camels ethylene (as per all the previous), while the other two are styrene

Median - Mice

Lower - Cats, big cats. in different scales. The Sabre-tooth is a hollow moulding in the style of Hong Kong horses of the distinctive type that came with small-scale Cowboys & Indians, I have a Dimetrodon and a 'monster' in the same style somewhere. The orange one is another - albeit larger - Britains copy.