B is for Bachmann, Busch and Other Blister Cards

Box ticking some more of the smaller railway figure issuers, it doesn't look like they actually made them, and because they are both blistered I've added a couple of other blister shots including one from Jon Attwood, as we are near the end of these posts for now.

These are the sets I hid in the Sandown Park plunder post the other day, a seller had a mass of N-gauge stuff, obviously an estate-clearing lot, and among them were several sets of figures, of which I grabbed four samples, one each of the two Bachmann's, the Busch and a Hachette (below).

 

A couple of points to note are that Bachmann admit to getting them in Hong Kong, while Busch, not known for figures, being primarily a tree/scenic maker, obviously got hold of some too, but give the impression - by subtle omission - that they are German products! The other point is that while graphics are similar, there is a year or two between the two Bachmann sets, with the green 'Accessories' line one being probably the newer, the blue 'Trains & Buildings' one probably older.

 

The usual scans (of the HO range) from various Walther's catalogues. In recent years Bachmann Europe and/or Bachmann UK have used various figures in HO/OO - also in sets of six - bought-in from Preiser, or even commissioned from them, but by "Recent Years" I realise I am talking about twenty-odd years, and there have been various changes in ownership of different arms of the brand in that time which are not for here, now, but can be looked at another day.

 

The same seller had these HO figures in tow, from Hachette the French-based part-work issuer, and (from the talk of 'Craft knife and scissors' in the instructions) possibly part of a larger building kit, and I think it was from the 'Little Benton Village' part-work? I suspect they are whitemetal, but short of getting them out and scratching one, I can't call it for sure!

 

While Jon sent these shots as part of the wider contributions, a bit too big for HO/OO-gauge related models, we have looked at them before, and this is the one with the bin-man which confused me a few years ago, as a similar chap came with a bit lorry!

News, Views Etc . . . Naughty Part-works

A couple of bits of news concerning part-works, one new, one old and one borrowed, but nothing blue, however; the 12,000-worder is still in edit, I'll see what I can do 'blue' there! In the light of the recent Panini UK agent's World Cup Sticker Album tribulations, the first story is the more interesting, concerning - as it does - cost.

Hachette

This global part-work issuer was castigated last week by the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) for failing to make clear that their current 'Build a London Routemaster Bus' part-work would run for 130 issues and cost consumers a total of more than £1,150.

The company said it had made the cost clear (on its website), but the ASA was having none of it and banned the TV-ad' promoting the publication, as the TV-ad' was considered to be misleading.

The real news here, as I see it; is why it has taken 30+ years to point out the bleeding obvious?

Because it requires an actual complaint, from a named complainant, willing to appear as a witness, before most modern watchdogs are able to act at all, under their - quite deliberately - ham-stringing Thatcherite-Raganomic remits, which put business (not 'big' business; all business) ahead of natural justice, or the rule of law.

It's not enough to know there are snake-oil salesmen, but to have to find villagers willing to paint their houses red, to scare them off!

Atlas Editions

It's not the first time the ASA has acted recently; they also upheld a complaint against Atlas Editions UK Ltd., back in August of last year, again 'misleading' sales techniques were fingered by the beak, only this time it was the website considered out of order, not the media publicity.

Although - It seems they are serial offenders as a well as serial issuers!

Other part-works are Available

These have also been in the media recently and from the left we have:

A set of Zippo lighters, never to light anything? A 'Merrythough' Bear which costs more than all the bears, rabbits &etc of my entire childhood! Paddington coins and a DC/UK thing, I would write more but this weeks got off to a busy start and I'm all over the place!

Close-ups of the important bits, in the bear's defence; he is rather smart! But who would want a whole display of rather hideous Zippo's, identical to the other 9,000 (that's; NINE . . . Thousand) sets? Madness!

T is for Two - Loose Ends

Just a quick one today, bit of a lazy post, still working on that A-Z entry (keep my shadow's on tenterhooks!), so throwing a couple of 'odds & sods' at you . . .

  . . . following on from a post and comment about six weeks ago, they were from a part work, I picked this one up at the Plastic Warrior show in May, handled by Bisset elsewhere in the world and Hachette Publishing here in the UK, title varies and the run went to over 70 issues, but not all were these figural statuettes, there were other things Ankhs and the like!

Shot on Adrien's Stand at the resent Sandown Park show, probably Forest Toys and about 8/9-inches high, carved from wood, it's hard to be certain and although I've posted Forest before I think; it doesn't seem to be in the tag-list so it may be that I was posting [animals] on another platform, last time. Grenadier!

He has a little house, it's like a little box, it hasn't got a kitchen, but there's room for drying socks!

ID'd is for Identified - 1 Tombola - Space Wars / Space Collection

For that is they! We have looked at these twice here (as a/with an attached question mark) and I know someone is looking for them elsewhere (LRG forum?), while somebody had asked me if I knew what they were in an eMail about seven years ago (which I can't find now?), yet (like Tatra - you read it here first) the answer has been there all along . . .

. . . on the side of the box! And the reason I kept saying I know [knew] who made them but can't find the note/evidence was because the figures were sorted out of the box (a 3-egg multi-pack), into a bag and labelled-up separately (storage - I only have the A-D's 'minor makes' box here).

Although to be fair, the storage ones included Star Wars figures and vehicles (some of which we've looked at here I think, back at the start), in a Star Wars box (also a 3-egg multi-pack), this box came from a show in the last few years, but the clue was there when I posted them last time!

My Image for the third time! Along with the image of the person who was asking about them. Tombola call them 'Space Wars' on the box, but the 'papers' state Space Collection, whether this points to separate issues or not I don't know.

There seem to have been 9 poses-each of both sides for an eighteen-count, with 12 ships to make up the '30 to collect' total, but even that is partial conjecture on my part as I have only found evidence for about 9 space vessels so far!

The 'Greys' are clearly the bad guys - they have Darth Vader-Imperial Stormtrooper-German Army of WWII type helmets . . . and orange 'rank' shoulder pads! Yet if you spray the 'Blues' black, they will look just like Star Wars Imperial pilots!

Although, the 'gladdy' washing-up gloves and wellington-boots make them all look a bit comical! Like as soon as they finish shooting each other, they're tasked with masturbating a prize-bull into a jam jar!

The three papers for my ship models compare with the shots below and you will see there was clearly some variance over what you got in the egg colour-wise both with plastic and paint. From the way these turn-up - I'm assuming (don't worry, he follows shadows the blog closer than I do!) they were always in 3-egg multiple buys and that you either got a figure box (three figures) or a vessel box - three ships.

Also you can see that each ship bears a resemblance to better known ships in the sci-fi cannon, here being (top-to-bottom) Bobba Fett's ship from Star Wars, a USS 'Something Class' Star Trek Federation Starship and something that looks to be between a Star Wars Star Destroyer and a Rebel Transport from the same franchise.

My Scorpion is a different colour-way but seems to be the same colours as the illustration on the papers, so all components in each colour of plastic, shared between three models? While my Galus is unpainted in silver/gunmetal plastic, and at only three parts one of the simplest.

While the model Navigator has the paint in the right places, but a different plastic/base colour. If you return to the top image, that funny little red Bronco/Bird-Dog thing looks familiar as well? Is it a Deep Space 9 influenced vessel, or something from Tron? And the silver thing also looks 'Trekkie', some kind of Bird of Prey?

Follow this link (hey, once you know what you're looking at it all comes out of the woodwork!) and you'll see he has several more, also recognisable from 'Trek, 'Wars or other well known Sci-fi movies, along with the paper from the figures.

Here's a couple of the Star Wars figurines from a display (pheasant feathers, Bisset/Hachette resin gods, Shermans and bags of dogs?!!) in an old flat from ages ago. But . . . if I'm taking the photograph, why can you see my camera in the shot . . . ♫ doo-doo, doo-doo . . . doo-doo, doo-doo . . . ♫ We have entered . . . the Twilight Zone!

Tombola seem to have faded from view (in the UK at least) and I don't know much about the immediate parent (De Jongh) although I will by the time I come to writing the A-Z entry, while the group's parent (Chuppa Chups) is very much alive. This set was run/dates from around 1996-8, I think the officially licensed Star Wars set was a little later - around 2004/6?

Two days later - following emails elsewhere, Paul Morehead of Plastic Warrior says these were sold as party favours with AFV's by Party Pig back in the early 2000's and same size not the 54mm I mentioned in the comments!

I've just tried to navigate PP's website and it would be easier to commit suicide by eating broken glass, but I'll add the importer to the tag list!