F is for Follow-up - Esquimaux Explorers

A quick follow-up to October's post on Kinder Arctic subjects, as I managed to pick up a colour variant on Friday, which we can have a quick shufti at! And re, that previous post's title, it's bloody cold now, they recon minus-7° tonight, which may be balmy for some of the Northern/Continental Loyal Readers, but it's pretty rare in sodding Hampshire!

This one is all a primrose yellow, I could look up the code and value but I think I've made that point, and it'll all be on the A-Z's one day, or at least that's the plan! He comes with an ice-axe and husky dog, rather that the skis-&-sticks of the previous example

I is for Is It Just Me, or Is It Getting Chilly?

We had two heat-waves here, the first breaking three-year old 'new' records by 3°, a trend which if it continues would render large parts of Europe, Asia and the SE of Britain uninhabitable by humans - in a heat-wave - within about 20 years? But after the second, not so hot but more humid, so equally uncomfortable heat-wave, the weather has gone rapidly downhill, and it's got quite chilly, but then I guess it is October, maybe the summer just lasted too long!

Anyway, seems like a good excuse to get the cold-weather gear out and check it over, these are all Kinder; 1980's/90's, and they are ready for anything the climate throws at them! 20/25mm at the top, 28/30mm compatible in the middle and a decet stab at 54mm with the 'steckfigur' at the bottom, who has lost the backs of his skis, and his boots . . . sniff! The silver blob was off some cartoon thing; long-lost.

I have a blue/white one who has his boots, so if I ever find the missing ski sections I will be able to re-shoot them both in some sort of order? All polyethylene, and with moveable arms/articulated waist, they are a useful addition to Timpo and/or Britains polar explorer/Esquimaux/Inuit sets.

There's the colour reversed version of this on evilBay at the movement, he's more of a novelty toy, and winter-sports rather than polar explorer or native hunter, but fun, Kinder, polystyrene and possibly a bit earlier, although still 1980's I think?

M is for Mushy-mush Mushington!

Before the winter's entirely over and after seeing the story the other day about one of the big Northern 'mush' races struggling to find a course of the correct length than was snow, not mush, I thought these were timely after a fashion . . . or indeed a manner!

Not a patch on the sublime Britains Herald sledge team (which I don't have!), but aimed at a different price-bracket and consequently cruder, yet more robust, is the Timpo arctic sledge with Esquimaux/Inuit musher.

13 pieces (unlucky for some . . . especially if items are missing!) go together to make up the model, which was sold assembled. One of my dogs is the wrong pose, but one of his feet lines up with a hole in the base so I could bluff the assembled shot below.

It's a stunning piece, even it if lacks the subtlety of the Britains one, although you have to ignore the totally inaccurate arrangement of the dog-team, who are always in-line, lead by the pack leader and spaced so that they can't reach each-other with a bite!

The traces simply loop loosely over the dogs heads and given that both horse leathers and these dog-leads are known for their increasing brittleness these days, I was treating them with such care - so's not to break them - they kept popping off; as I got a couple over the heads one would come loose again, it was like a fiddly game of whack-a-mole!

The Britains set was different from the others by depicting Western explorers rather than native peoples, the green one is a Marx reissue and I think the brown one holding a fish aloft was by Ideal, also an American make, also a reissue?

The musher can take the same snow-shoes as the rest of the line, and; once equipped with a knife, makes a good bar-brawler or bear-fighter!

T is for Toy Fair '18 Reports - Tactic Games

Continuing le theme du'jour! This was a new company to me, and they only had three or four games on display, two of which contained the figural elements Small Scale World craves, both of which will annoy anyone who groaned when they saw the snails earlier, but for posterity and completion - I'll persevere!

Alias; not a game familiar to me, but it has little men who are half-way between Rowntree's jelly-babies and Tony Hart's Morph! And that fact alone gets them onto the Blog!

Sadly the poses on the box are not repeated in the counters, who look even more like jelly-babies and less like Morph! Likewise the smaller 'children' on the box don't seem to have made it to the games contents, clearly a graphic trope to get across the family-friendly nature of the game?

They are very much a case of find-one-of-each-colour-file-and-forget as far as collecting goes, but they are figural, you get a 'free' sand-timer and they are probably fun! I'll be looking out for them in the charity shops in a year or two's time.

The same figures are included in the Junior Draw Out game seen in one of the background shots below. Also note how one of the red figures doesn't have the small disc-base of the others; earlier version left in the sales-team's display sample, or common variant?

They also had Cool Catch out on a table, this has . . . er . . . wooden flats I'd clearly forgotten about when I mention cows (or a cow) in the previous post (the problem of queuing these posts up on the laptop in random order!)

The reason I haven't collaged these is because I didn't crop them tight as they have some of the other games from Tactic in the background which I thought I'd leave visible!

A nice touch - especially for wooden flats - is the addition of a faux-fur fringe on the hoods of the Esquimaux's suits. And it looks from the box art as if the game was initially going to be for four players, but there are six figures; brown and yellow being included.

And a polar bear! I think (I hope - given the target age-range!) he only steals fish, and isn't in the business of eating Inuit! I only got  a bum shot I'm afraid, but he was more realistic (for a wooded flat!) than the cartoony inhabitants of the Arctic circle!

Again, it's not something I'm going to buy as a grown man who is supposed to collect Toy Soldiers, but if/when I see one going cheap I'll be getting it for completion, and to make sure samples are in the archive!

And if I attend the fair next year I'll try to remember to pay more attention to Tactic's stand and see what else they've come up with; of a figural nature.