G is for Gashapon - Bandai Namco - Ultraman Cityscape

It is the bane of blind or random selection that you won't always get what you want, what you hoped for, or what you need to complete a run or set, and while this set has three nice figures, both Adrain and I ended-up with the same simplified, micro-building, hay-ho!

 

The machine!

 

The capsule, and prize, I couldn't work it out until I'd got it out of the packet and studied the sheet! It's a small (1:600th or even 1:1200th) type micro-bulding, to be made-up, with five others, into a cityscape, for the 'Giant' Ultramen to stand amongst as they battle Godzilla or Mothma, or something equally daft and rubber-suit sized!

 

Paperwork, I don't know if the three figures are different heros. different generatuons/movie-versions of the same guy or what? Having never really followed the franchise (I haven't seen any of the recent big-budget Hollywood takes either, and I'm not in a queue to!), it always struck me as a kid's daftness, and while you can have nostalgia for your own (I wish someone would find a stash of Hector's House recordings), I don't think you can retro-establish a love for something aimed at kids, as a cold, cynical, logical adult?

 

Powered by a sealed watch battery, the novelty has a limited life-span, in its illuminated form at least, but you can, hopefully, from the right-hand image, get an idea of how a bunch of them would look with one or two of the figures looming out from the midst of them!

G is for Gashapon - Introduction

Well, these have been in the queue for nearly two years! A mate, Adrian, was doing the Cherry Blossom trail in Japan, with his wife, and I said to him "Oh, you'll be able to fill your boots with Gashapon!", which required a quick explanation of the particularly Japanese take on capsule-toys, as they evolved from Western gum-ball machines, themselves evolved from earlier, Victorian postcard dispensers, a mutual friend - Gareth - backed up my enthusiasm, and Adrian was clearly intrigued enough to look them up while he was out there.

 

What I didn't know was that when he came back, he would present me with results of his research as a fiftieth birthday present! So we're looking at them over the next few days, purely as a brief overview, their full story is far greater and there are catalogue-type books on the subject available in Japanese, rather like the O-Ei-A books on the similar, but tending to more juvenile, Kinder Toys.

 

So, Gashapon, from Gasha (the cranking of a 'one-armed-bandit' handle) and Pon, the actual capsule; Japanese capsule toys; not the occasional tray of chocolate eggs, or the odd machine outside a convenience store, but rather a semi-industrialised craze, primarily 're-invented' by Bandai in the 1970's, with Tomy ('Gacha') and Kaiyodo also heavily involved now. There have, since the late 1990-early 2000's, been whole stores dedicated to banks of the machines, which we are looking at here, all shot by Adrian.

 

Clockwise from the top left we have, 'luck dip' mystery prizes, highly detailed miniature firearms, specifically semi-automatic military rifles, I guess pistols or machine-guns will be separate issues/series? Some kind of miniature viewers (?), construction-brick bunk-beds, cat's arse rings (who knew there was even a market for them!) and Tama and Friends keyrings - more Hello Kitty knock-off?

 

Squishies, manga deforms, some kind of pump-dispenser keyrings (?), Halloween wallets, more cutesy keyrings and miniature lunch-bags - it's quite an eclectic collection of subjects, and materials, especially when compared with Kinder*, but that - in part - is explained by the larger capsules, and the fact that adult collectors don't hide under Edwardian leftover shame as we do, in the West; the Japanese 'grown-ups' happily, openly collecting them, as an expression of Shōwa nostalgia.

 

*Kinder do seem to be moving (at a glacial speed) in a similar direction, with more keyrings, phone-hangers and luggage tag type prizes, appearing these days. 

 

A canyon of gift-dispencers!

 

Choices, choices!

 

Advertising display cabinet, I believe all the larger Gashapon stores have something like this, with a selection of current or recent offerings, to kick-start the consumer urge, among the undecided!

 

Platform shoes and fishing lures! And the lures, conveniently telling us - in English - that they are the 5th wave, I think? And - even more weirdly - without actually knowing much about it, I suspect, you could remove them from the keyrings, tie them into your tackle line, and use them to fish?!

 

Miniaturised, or doll's house scaled, tea-ceremony furniture, and necklaces of . . . Japanese mythological themes?

 

Miniaturised foods or foodstuffs seem common themes, both modern and nostalgic, and the display of cartoon, Manga or Anime figural models, above the machines, might be some of the staff's own duplicates? Or maybe leftover/end-of-line stuff, or damaged capsule contents . . . something like that?

 

Likewise, here, where more necklaces and keyrings feature in the machines themselves, including miniature beach sets, blood bags (?!!) and two different 'Juggler' related things, which I can only guess - badly - at!

 

Watch-battery illuminated, stand-ups of Harry Potter characters.

 

Sci-fi feature quite heavily, along with historical's, and here we see stuff related to The Rocketeer, Batman, Star Wars and The Avengers

 

More Anime/Manga stuff, either side of miniaturised Pioneer Hi-Fi decks!

 

An amazing maze!

 

A mystery to finish, not speaking Japanese, I can only guess these are Alice's Adventures in Wonderland coasters? Featuring Sir John Tenniel (the first commercial illustrator to be knighted)'s original artwork? Which would require the largest size of capsule? There are different sizes and designs of Capsule, as we'll see working through them, while a few sets seem to be cheaper or more expensive than the 'standard' Gashapon.

 

Many thanks to Adrian for all these images, which give us a good flavour of the subject, and for the toys which we will be looking at over the next few posts.

 

These two consumer sheet/covering leaflets came-in with some mixed paperwork, and sadly i don't have the figures to show, but it gives an idea of the type of stuff you get in a capsule, along with the toy, novelty or model, very similar to the sheets you get in Kinder or other chocolate eggs.

P is for Post Office . . . Rack Toys!

Specifically, the Cranleigh Post Office!

 

For those loyal readers who aren't aware of the fact (which is probably most of you), Cranleigh is a rather smart villagey-town in an equally smart corner of Surrey Hills, a 'stockbroker dormitory' for those who 'come down' from London at the weekend, in their shiny, black SUV-4x4-Crossover wanker's tanks, and where they park their trophy wives and Eton-bound brats!

 

It also serves some of the smartest villages and hamlets you'll find, like Plaistow, and the 'folds (Ifold, Dunsfold (home of the Hawker Harrier*) and Alfold) and is known to describe the feeling of "A mood of irrational irritation with everyone and everything." from the little-black-book The Meaning of Liff by Douglas Adams and John Lloyd, a surprise, comedy, Christmas-hit, decades ago, now, which was contemplative reading in our loo for years, and rather sums-up those stockbroker residents! Indeed, the less kind might accuse me of suffering chronic Cranleigh! I would - of course - point to the bell-curve (and what's happening in America right now), and argue it's not irrational.

 

* I served in the TA for a while with a Mr. Boxall who was in the paint shop at Dunsfold, and used to do all the markings for Hawks and Harriers, new and refurbishments! I don't know if he did the Red Arrows, but he told of the flurry of activity during the Falklands crisis.

 

Anyway, I have been driving round there, for work, recently, and saw a sign behind the trees in the main street saying "Balloons & Other Novelties", and thought that sounded interesting, so made a mental note to return, on a day-off, when it (which turned out to be the Post office) was open, and did so! Finding a quite well-stocked corner of cheaper toys, gifts, craft work stuff and, yes, novelties!

 

This is what I found;

 

The latest iteration of the set of six largish, but cheap dinosaurs we saw here under several brands about eight/ten years ago (Poundland, TKMaxx, 99p Stores and others), singly or in threes. Currently wearing Kandytoys moniker, and I think this is one of the second paint versions, we saw last time?

 

This was actually branded TKM, so must have been a bulk purchase at some point, from, probably, Home Bargains? A nice set of larger animals for those who collect such things, the elephant is nicely sized for conversion to a 25mm war elephant, but I'm not sure why the lioness is a completely different colour from the lion!

 

This was HGL (Grossman), and goes well with my British Museum ruminant Sauropoda (future post!), it is what it is, but collaged poorly due to its dimensions!

 

This is the 'other' Alien illustrated on the card of the Whitehouse Leisure one I found in Stansted the other week (https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2025/08/r-is-for-recent-rack-toy-roundup.html), without the Elf's ears, and while I didn't look closely on either occasion, and got both sculpts out of two purchases by pure accident, I think it can be assumed both come in both brandings? This is also badged Kandytoys.

 

I left him in the slime for now, as it has a heat-sealed lid, like a milk carton! The cap, however, is a whacky, LED-embedded, screaming-loud, multicoloured UFO, which is operated from the button on the top, but with a sealed-unit battery, won't last forever! It adds to a growing fleet of mini flying-saucers!

 

It was mostly dinosaurs though, and here another from a set of, err . . . several, each of which has a mini-saur in a decorative egg! I only got the one, to help with future ID'ing, and it shares branding with both Kandytoys (the reused sculpt above) and 'Jurassic Era', but is a new sculpt as far as I know

 

As do these (share the brand/brand-mark), but which, again, I think we saw years ago, as generics or in Pucator branding? These were cheap as chips (not that chips are that cheap these days; even a child's portion can be a fiver!), so I bought two, and will un-dig one of these glow-in-the-dark dino-skeletons, one day!
 

Heading back, I dropped into Borden to check the Poundstretcher for those Supreme knock-off Wild West sets - they hadn't had a re-stock, so no Cowboys (they were in the bigger set we looked at a few years ago), and instead I left with this soft-vinyl, metallic dry-brushed, Sci-Fi/Fantasy, robo-stego-dragon, for something daft like 70p? Bargain! And ideal for figures between 20-40mm.
 

Right, I've got a week or so to fire out as much rack-toy stuff as I can, and will try to make an effort!

I is for Illumin' . . . with a Moomin!

I shouldn't be allowed, I know! Just a quickie here, I grabbed this in Waterstone's back in August as it was the last one, and went back a few times hoping they'd get a re-stock, and I could get others, but when eventually they did get some more, it was just a bunch of these, so generic early 'book' Moomin rather than later colour-coded TV character Moomin!

 

 

 

More of a nightlight than a torch, it would help you find key-holes in the dark!

Labelled Temptation Gifts

F is for Four Fingers of Fictional Fun

A few Sci-Fi bits and bobs which were kicking around various corners of the Laptop, and which might as well be shoehorned into one post to clear the decks a bit!

Star Wars key-rings; We've seen a few before now, but I thought a comparison was in order, and we have - from the left - an LED torch, Lego 'maxi' Darth Vader, followed by three normal 'minifig' sized rings, then an Applause young Anakin/Vader, which I think is part of the avalanche of merchandise which accompanied the fourth/first movie.

I don't know how many there were in the Applause set, so the gap is for the missing Vader in an otherwise complete set of the capsule key-ring figures, cleared through The Works a few years ago, then to Pound-Plus, branded TPF Toys for shipping-in by STL.

ET's, a planetoid's worth of ET's! The three to the right are licensed LJN, and from a set of six (or eight?), while the chap on the left is marked J.A.R. Sales, and may be more of a knock-off than an official product, but both lines are dated 1982, so may both be legitimate?

I have no idea how many of the JAR ones there were and scale on them is 'big' as he fitted in a bikes shopping basket I seem to recall (never seen it, have no intention of seeing it!), so about 1:18^th or larger? I guess there was half-an-idea for them to be compatible with dolls, for playing-out the movie scenes?

Ignore the Greek, he's been joined by three of his compatriots recently and will be Blogged separately at some point. I managed to pick up both the Remco divers from Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea last year, but they have been separated already, one here, one in storage - funny story; TJF managed to score a brownie-point with this one when I posted it elsewhere, but really, Journey to the Centre of the Earth / The Land that Time Forgot / 2,000 Leagues Under the Sea / 10,000 BC and a dozen other movies of the time were basically variations on a theme!

The metal-detector/mine-sweeper one is missing the base-stud, but as it's only used to lock them onto the floor of their retail carton, it's more a question of Do I remove the other one?

The chap to the right is supposed to be Gort from The Day the Earth Stood Still, but the head's all wrong, so I'll leave it to a jury, preferably a Bristolian one! He's a soft polyethylene and Argentinian.

Picked this up cheap a while back, as a sort of follow-up to the other day's Lunar Rover post; it's Dinky France selling-off the Zygon War Chariot crew figures as 'astronauts' in their spare-parts program! Daft in'it . . . got tub full's of orphaned seated figures and I go and get three more, but it's always about the packaging!

The funny thing is I know I have a metal Gort somewhere but can't find him, and there are more ET's in the post, so we will be returning to both those subjects in the not too far future!

N is for Novelty . . . Guards - Larger

Well, Nutcracker Suites are being cancelled left, right and centre, Sugar Plum Fairies are on furlough, Babes aren't  marching in the woods; 2020's turned out to be such a shitter, I thought we'd have a few novelty guards to brighten things up, and because I threatened to do so, around this time, when Peter Evans sent some earlier in the year!

So these are the medium-sized chaps, all about 45-60-odd millimeters. We have seen some before as they came in, but here they all are together. From the left;

• ·         Probably actually a circus ringmaster/compare he's resin - mostly!
• ·         PVC or even silicon-rubber key-ring
• ·         LED Torch in mixed materials
• ·         Resin guardsman who was probably a fridge-magnet once?
• ·         Silicon rubber key ring who was designed as a pencil-top first
• ·         Key-ring or Christmas tree hanging-decoration/figural bauble in chromium-plated polystyrene.

You can see how the left-hand key-ring began life as or intended for pencil-topping, or - indeed - pens; all writing instruments matter! And the material is a soft, squidgy silicon-rubber, against the stiffer rubber of the chap on the right.

The new one (who came from Chris Smith or Peter Evans earlier in the year I think) in the middle has the remains of a sting/ribbon loop, but whether it was for keys or Christmas trees only god knows . . . have you got one coming out of the attic any-day now loyal readers, or are you carrying one around with your keys?

I think both of these (lower pair) were new this year (same likely contributors) and while the one on the left does stand-up, some damage to the small of his back points to the careful removal of a magnet and hot-wax [glue-gun] glue I think?

The one on the right seems to be resin, but he has peculiar soft areas on his feet, almost as if someone had rebuilt the soles with Blue-Tac and painted over it, so he may have been removed from a larger vignette, maybe he's a band-master in one of those 'Christmas Village' band-stands, or something like that?

I nearly left him in the Guards, but after umming-&-arring for a while I put him with the circus stuff for now, although as well as Victorian bandstands, he might fit the bill of a foreign nations' police/traffic-police force uniform, making him more of a tourist-memento piece?

Seen before and I can't remember the branding (Puckator - I looked it up!), but it was looked at better then I think. There is a little pull-out tab at his waist-rear, to prevent the battery being in contact and running down, while he plays a bloody annoying little tune every time you press the button!

Largest were posted earlier this year!

LED is for Light Tanks

No, not a new line in Tron merchandise (mores' the pity!), nor a new range of aluminium-hulled reconnaissance vehicles for the British Army (who - god knows; need them) but rather; a couple of novelty tanks with lights!

There's not often an excuse for a video in the output or subject matter of Small Scale World, but when there is, it is now taken with glee, the opportunity that is, the actual videoing is still poorly lit and a bit amateurish, but . . . I'm an amateur!

In my little universe a novelty tank is a 'tank', but a novelty car is a 'novelty', so let's get this out of the way; first-up, it's a car! It's about the same size as those die-cast Burago key-rings, so HO/1:87th'ish and looks a bit Citroën-like with the aerodynamic wheel-arch fairings, but having the 'jelly-mould' lines of a 1990's saloon.

We saw it in the video . . . &etc.

But these! These are mini-tanks, with flashing lights, too cool for Panzer Schule! I know we've had that gag before, but it's my Blog and if I want to be repetitive - I will be!

Turret and upper hull have all the hallmarks of the T54/55 or T62 families, but - given its likely origin (it's unmarked) - probably an Type 59/69 or something - i.e. the Chinese copy! But from the waist down, it's a Tetrach! Was someone using the old small-scale, rack-toy, generic tank as shipped-in by Speedwell (among others) as a basis for the running gear? Nahh! Just coincidence - four-wheels fit!

Close-ups and stuff, the two positions on the turrets in the right-hand shot are the maximum extents of the traverse. The whole thing is a heat/pressure sealed 'sealed-unit' so once the batteries run out, it's basically recyce-fodder!

Has anyone else encountered these? They look to be 'brannies', so may be findable and it'd be nice to A) put a brand or a couple of importers' names to them and B) know what other colours are available . . . or - for that matter - C) are/were there slightly more military-looking (green or camo') versions?

T is for Toy Fair 2018 Reports - Re:Creation - Lego Franchise

You may have gathered over the years that I'm not a fan of the Kiddy-brick thieves, but that's at the corporate level, as far as the bricks go; I'm easy, I just don't buy the hype of the rivals being bad or falling apart, they all seem OK when I encounter them, but anyway, this is technically about Re-Creation not Billund!

Original, 1979 toy-fair, award-winning, astronauts, now available as LED torches! That's too cool for space-school! There were also - originally - black and yellow spacemen, they must be chasing down Mr. Musk's sports-car!

Re-Creation has the territory-license for Lego's non-toy stuff, and they had plenty of other things on display (bags, belts, stationary, Swatch-like watches), but I was concentrating on the mini-figure related stuff.

I don't know the significance in the backing-card graphic changes here . . . new range? It may be that different corporate/bulk customers (Tesco or Sainsbury's for instance) can stipulate packaging . . . I should have asked while I was there . . .hay-ho!

The new characters from the recent movies are starting to be included alongside the older icons of the franchise, and larger versions are available of some of those iconic characters, I have the little Darth Vader (we saw him the other day here at SSW), but I bet the large one is blinding!

Which reminds me; if you're buying the Darth, check he has a cloak, I bought two back in 2012, one for a friend and one for me and didn't notice mine was missing it's cloak, someone had nicked it, presumably to replace a damaged one at home!

DC and other Lego themed figures, each in the graphics of their respective toy-range . . . I like the old-school Batman & Robin, and the Joker.

There's that babe in the sexy-basque again, but looking more like someone's granny! And I love the Clark Kent with his shirt ripped-open, only trouble being - Lego Minis (formerly Legoland Minifigures!) can't get their hands round to the fronts of their chests!

If they've sold 8-point-something million of them in the UK and Eire, that's about one per hundred people . . .no, it's one per every ten people? Oh . . . bother! [Get's the calculator up on the screen!] It is! it's approximately one per every 10 or 11 citizens! Well - I've got mine, have you got yours - they're very good - while the batteries are fresh!

T is for Two - Novelty Figures

Picked-up one of these on my recent trip up to The Smoke, picked the other one up a couple of days later in a charity shop!

And so to Lan'dan Tar'n! Filthy, noisy, place, full of selfish, self-absorbed, shoulder-bargers, glued to their dumb-phones and apparently playing Russian roulette with what appears to be half the vehicular traffic in Western Europe - as it happens, but full of little touristy nick-knack kiosks.

One of which was purveying this little LE'delight and I had to have it! It's too cool for luminary school, and it's a guardsman, so will join the toast-mould cutters & egg-cup, knitted-woolen egg-cosy, bog-brush, clockwork walker, nutcracker et al!

It's by Puckator, who did those nearly-impossible to get out undamaged, resin pirates in plaster blocks, Peter Evans let me have a few years ago!

The downside is that when you press the button you don't just get light in the darkness, you get a tinny rendition of half-a-verse of the Rule Britannia. It sounds like someone coerced a grasshopper to play it on some frayed fishing line, in a biscuit-tin! Still - it could be worse; it could have been the national Anthem!

I don't know about you, whoever you are or wherever you are, but most National Anthems are pretty tedious affairs, one tries to hear as infrequently as possible, especially if one - having been in the forces - has already overdosed on the bloody thing.

It's the one thing I feel sorry for the Royal family about, they get to listen to the same, slow dirge, umpteen times a day, played by amateur bands, rappers, junior-school recorder and triangle 'orchestras', steel bands and foreigners who saw the music for the first time two days previously, or who possess un-tuned instruments (it's on the Internet somewhere!), they get it played on spoons, wash-boards, tea-chest cellos, coloured-water filled milk-bottles, flower-pots and probably - at least once - Imperial Stormtrooper's helmets! They get it acapella from groups of poets, school-dinner ladies, Uncle Tom Cobly an'all.

They must all have been driven slightly insane, or borderline suicidal, by the dreadful tune?

I intend to try disabling that relevant part of the PCB!

This was a nice find, I remember seeing them a couple of Christmases ago in one of those gadget-gift round-up's in the national press, I think they were about £12 plus postage, so finding one for four-quid in a charity shop was a bargain. I think I said a while ago when discussing the dongle-upgrade - I don't mind paying a pound a gigabyte, but more than that - when corporate PR exercises give away 4 or 8Gb data-sticks these days - is madness.

And who can say no to a naughty monkey in a green T-shirt (don't go there; I think I might have, but I think I got away with it! And a jungle hasn't been mentioned . . . Doh!). I like the fact that there's a rubber tag (with a tight-fit) you can slot in the USB hole to keep the two halves together while you're using it.

I scanned the can's wrap-around before it went in the recycling. Imported by Satsuma, and as I said above, was retailing a couple of years ago. I'm after a flash-drive robot I saw a while ago too, I don't know if it's also Satsuma or someone else, but I can see a collection of novelty memory sticks in my future!

Whoops - T is for THREE - Novelty Figures! The Darth Vader LED has been seen here before, but they are now a group, along with the coffin data-stick we've also looked-at previously.