R is for Real Rack Toys!

Possibly concerned by the lack of rack-toys in Rack Toy Month here at Small Scale World, Peter Evans and Brian Berke both sent me rack toy images on the same day, earlier in the week just gone, and here they are! There are some more in the queue, and I'll try to get them out this week, by holding the PW show-report stuff 'till September; welp - better late than never!

This was the one from Peter, and he's kept one for me, so we'll have a closer look at it another day, for now, suffice to say they are Britains Deetail copies, in the same vein as those from 'H', Webb's Supertoy, or Kwong Wah, and something we will have to properly sort-out one day! The accessories are cloned from the much-licenced Crossbow & Catapults game.

20-11-2024 - Now here and in the queue, issuer is Arty & Mell S.L., of Madrid.

 

This is probably the most useful one from Brian, imported by JMC Allstar, and the picture on the back shows even more in the range, not least a very useful-looking HO-compatible building of the lineside/railway type (top left of the lower picture), some useful scenics and a towed artillery piece in a very 1:32nd-compatable size, taken from New Ray I think?

 

More aimed at infants, but construction vehicle collectors may be interested?

An oddity;  from a Xinleyang it says 'Fruit Cash Register', but contains an assortment of doll's furniture and a small, lilac, fantasy fort, with a Funko-style/headed doll! Artwork is all a bit retro with a Strawberry Shortcake vibe!

There's a fish, crab and lobster!

Novelty figural, magnetic puzzle.

The rest are from Hunson (and JPW/OKK), who haven't had a new entry in the tag list for a while now; Brian pointed out that it's been a while since he's found new Rack Toys to show us (but in fact ha has sent a few in recent donations).

 

The farm and wild animals, along with the unicorn (a My Little Pony rip-off?) are quite juvenile/cutesie sculpts, although the muntjac (?) and baby elephant both look passable, however, the sea life set appears to have more realistic mouldings overall, which, if that genre is your 'thing' should be a must for the wants list, if you haven't found them yet.

 

Many thanks to both contributors for these, and they are all out there, now, somewhere, it's just a matter of tracking them down, in a market that seems to have little place for them these days. I will try and get a sea-side visit in, over the next few weeks to see what can still be found there, as Brian had some success in that direction a few years ago?

M is for Many More Motorised Machines!

I think it's fair to say Rack Toy Month wouldn't be RTM without three elements, Parachute toys (coming), Dinosaurs (done!) and motorcycles! Not all 'rack-toys' but let's get that box ticked before we run-out of Month!

Lion toys from . . . I can't remember when now, I think I've mentioned it on another visit to the Catalogue, about 1984 I think? Maybe 1980? Anyway, the bike's tool is still around, we saw them in newer packaging a couple of year's ago, but of more interest are the Corgi copies of race official and camera-man.

Lego! I was holding this for a better shot, but this post is a Picasa clearer, so they've been shoe-horned in to get them off the laptop. Note (if you were following the Blog eleven years ago) the conversion to a German soldier on a DKW is still waiting for arms, handlebars and . . . . paint!

I will try to re-shoot them separately (and better) as comparisons with the scooter rider in the Airfix Civilians set over on that Blog one day?

Not motorised, but as there were bicycles in the previous shot, they can fit here, also we have seen them before I think, but I don't always remember what's what, so shot them again (or just had some shots left over) as I think the red one is a new colour?

Robo-motorbike-cop! There's no indication this chap from Lik Be / LB is a policeman or any other kind of law-enforcement or security operative, but I've always thought of him that way! He could just as easily have a hose and a buffer in his hand sockets for cleaning cars "Would you like wax with that Sir?", but I like to think they are a siren-horn and a 'needle-gun'!

Branded to Hunson and shipped into the 'States by JPW, these were sent to the Blog by Brian Berke and look to be 3/4 inch Action Figure sized? Four colours with a possible shade variation of the green - but including it would have ruined the collage!

I can't remember if we've seen one of these, both of them or neither? More board game flats anyway! The one on the left looks a bit like the Waddington's one from those post-war versions of Monopoly (see recently here at Small Scale World), but is a softer lead/whitemetal flat, while the other one (with a short-shot suffering front wheel - bouncy-bouncy!) is probably from a much earlier Edwardian game from between the wars?

Similar to the green one

By way of a follow-up to a motorcycle ChrisSmith donated to the Blog a year ago, but only in its size, and the stabiliser wheels! Classic rack toy, and it can't have been rare as that rider seems to have been in every-other rummage tray I've ever looked through!

Speaking of Chris, he sent these as a follow-up to the unknown copy of a Britains Sheriff's motorcycle we looked at a while ago, which came from Jeff I think, at Sandown Park, or Gareth - I can't for the life of me find the post now, so if any loyal readers happen to have bookmarked it, or know where it is?

Chris not only found the bike and a complete rider, but he found the accompanying (Spanish) guard and the base of that figure reveals the truth - Guisval! Obviously they can be used as WWII Germans, but with a Harley-D and white gloves I think we are actually talking Franco's Civil Guard, on parade?

These came in a week or two ago, a donation from Peter Evans, and another Red Deer offering; chunky and fitted with stabilisers, they are really infant toys (as if most of the rest aren't!), bt it's all grist to the mill.

Only seen the other day, but I already had these in the big folder! Home-cast or similar figures, the post was here.

Action Figure is for Points of Articulation

Following-on from the earlier post's large sandy-coloured gentleman; this is not the normal output of the Blog, and is presented here as an easy read, to clear Picasa of images going back to 2016, for general information and because it's Rack Toy Month, and these are classic modern rack toys!

I don't collect these, I don't think many of you do, but they come in . . . there are shelfies here from Brian Berke and myself, there are donated samples from Peter Evans, stuff I've picked-up and things which have been included in mixed Charity Shop lots . . . they just come in!

Once they have been annotated and photographed they tend to go on to the Blue Cross charity shop here in town, where hopefully the mint/near-mint stuff provides a nice surprise for a kid who's parent may only be able to afford toys from charity shops?

An overview . . . chronologically according to the dates on the .jpg's!

These are two on the left from Brian, which he sent to the Blog back in 2016 (Combat Soldiers) and 2017 (Desert Force), the latter branded to both Hunson (obverse) and JPW International (reverse), the former a generic. The one on the right is from Peter, much-later (2019) and was just collaged into the trio, it too; lacks a brand mark.

Two of the 'laws' of rack-toy army-men are established immediately; loads of SF (Special [or Security] Force/s) panoply festooning the figures and over-sized accessories - play value comes before realism with these! Although - to be fair - the left hand figure has received a semi-realistic wash paint-job.

Also from Brian, also 2017 came these chaps, similar to the figures in the middle set of the previous trio of sets, these are nevertheless new sculpts and shrinking their berets on the correct side!

A further 'law' makes itself obvious; random accessories such as undersized flags, or oversized rockets from WWII German halftracks! I'm not sure if Super is a phantom brand or an over-optimistic corporate QA statement from the otherwise anonymous manufacturer!

This gets us to 2018, with the two on the right from Peter (we may have seen another in a similar post last year or the year before?), both 'minters' I hope they went on to bring joy to a small person, the larger one branded to Maxxi (a Middlesex-based importer) the other generic.

Some further close ups of the previous pair from peter; the franchise-tied (Call of Duty) but outherwise generic one is actually a very well made and finished figure, possibly Blue Box (BBI) clearance?

While Maxxi have been connected to those crude 54mm'ish Wild West sets also issued by about five other 'brands' in the last three or four years, their figure comes with candy (and may have been seen already, in a candy-container post?). I have a lot of novelty stuff kicking about in Picasa and tend to grab it without much planning during RTM!

Speaking of the Maxxi 54mm solids they are responsible for this chap too (right-hand image); Apache Big Chief, also from Peter, while the Accoutrements (Archie McPhee) Oscar Wild came from Brian, the two prooving that non-Army Man, rack toy, action figures are out there!

Also JPW; Brian sent these shelfies over 2018 and 2019, and there's no way they are in any way connected to a certain stony movie franchise, on no, not at all, and the white guy doesn't even look like Mr Stallone! These are actually quite cool toys, if I was younger . . . and etcetera! They each come with a piece of boxing-gym equipment, so you can build-up a little training-regime, while Sly . . . I mean the guy in the stripped shorts worries about failing the big test!

Taken last October is this overview of some of the above with others that had come in from various sources as lose figures including some pricier branded civilians from younger kids 'big name' toy ranges, I haven't given any sizes, as I haven't noted any as they went through, and those who know about these things will . . . err . . . know!

A couple more loose ones and a set we have seen before I think, from H&H Distribution. I can see the appeal of them, but action figures need more space than I have ever had, and - on the branded side - more funds than I can or am willing to provide!

T isfurr'Towe! Said Old McDonald!

 With impeccable (and almost psychic) timing, Mr. B sent these from the Big Apple the other day, but I only got around to them on Wednesday (by the time you read this I should have caught-up with everything, replied to everyone's eMails and be firing on all cylinders!); follow-up's to recent posts, I was saving them for the next time we looked at poultry, when I realised I only had two posts for Sunday and one of them was animal shelfies, so it all sort of slotted into place!

Hunson/JPW are shipping these as I write, or they did a while ago, either-way they are still findable on the other side of the pond and cover the four main [poultry] food groups; Chicken, Duck, Goose and Turkey,! Sort of like, ooh, I dunno' . . .  Papo/Schleich size . . . but cheaper!

Brian also sent his Auburn Rubber 'smaller animals' as a follow-up or addendum to the post on such things here just before Christmas and a direct comparison with the Ohio Arts figures we saw on that occasion or; better still 'cos I like a challenge . . .

. . . Ohio art are the left of each pair (obviously; I knew that!), and the Auburn are undeniably the better sculpts! Not my best touching-up of images but it was rushed!

S is for Shelfies - USA

As well as the Ja-Ru shots Brian sent which we looked at yesterday, he's send lots of other Shelfies, some of which are in other articles in the queue, some of which are still in the 'long queue' probably destined for a straight to A-Z entry (when I get on top of them), but here are three which can go on the blog forthwith!

As a follow-up to another Bible Toys set he sent which we saw a while ago (Noah I think or was it JC himself), we have David and Goliath with other sets illustrated on the blister's backing card.

They all look a little Euro-Caucasian for Arabs, an excuse you could justify explain in the past when the whole of Western civilization was a war-loving, patriarchal, colonising, Pope-driven, racist, Christian cult, but these days they really should know better!

We've seen these before, both sides of the pond, under about five different brandings. Peter Evans sent one to the blog which was more of a candy-premium? Here under Hunson's moniker and four figures to a card, they are second-generation copies of the old Supreme sculpts - which also got several brand-outings!

The bowman (who also came with the candy set) is arguably the poorest pose in an otherwise reasonable group.

Graphics are odd - even by rack-toy standards, with the figures suspended over a lava-lake held-in by a glowing-red 'Berlin' wall??? Wild Willy's Gun Shop is clearly some portal to Hades, or the ammo-store just took-off with a bang!

These look very familiar, are they the sets we saw in Plastic Warrior magazine a few years ago (issue 159 - back issues avaiable) as US Toy from Les White? I think they are, you also see them from time to time on evilBay in sets of 12.

Now, they are six-pose sets, but there are only five in the bag, so you would have to buy at least two sets (four in this case as the firefighters come in red or tan), but as JPW they are likely to be so much cheaper than as US Toy or feebleBay's £$€6-something+postage, that it looks a good deal! The other set which comes in two colours (not in the PW article) are the soldiers who come in tan or green.

Many thanks to Mr. Berke - all useful stuff, especially if you are over the pond.

F is for Football

I'll let you have 'soccer' if you're American, Australian or Irish, but there's no excuse for the rest of you! Brian B sent these the other day, he's previously sent us the Baseball players from the same range and possible another set - American footballers or basketballers but A) I can't find them on the dongles, B) I may be getting confused with the big tubs he also sent and C) the other sports are illustrated on the card, so it may be a false memory!

No matter; these are rather nice-looking and would appear to be ideal for jointing current set of cake decoration footballers we've seen here a few times now; size-wise. Five aside - four players and a goalie, but you'd have to remove a few of the balls _ think three of them have a ball, it's like a warm-up!

From the JPW/Hunson pairing, and like some of their other stuff claimed by OKK Trading of China, although Hunson are absent from the sticker this time, they were carrying the previously seen baseball set.

U is for Universal, Super-powerful, Superhero Heroes!

I don't normally carry Action figures here, but when we have them, and especially when they are contributions, they will find a place on Small Scale World as they have a place in the small-scale world. Sometimes that will be on the A-Z Blogs (which I've been working on in the background), and that was where these chaps - from Brian Berke - were headed until it seemed there was enough in the Spandex Leotards folder for a small season!

Also I can't be too snobbish about one aspect of the hobby 'tree' when I'm as likely to Blog Christmas-tree decorations or bubble-gum premiums the next day! Different strokes for different folks!

We have seen one of these before, in the Firefighter 'mini-season' back near the start of the year, but along with the firefighter was these Universal Hero figures, all of which could double for both Ninja warriors (with a can of black spray-paint) or Mexican Wrestlers!

Larger sets come with three figures and a helmet/mask, no prize for guessing who that's supposed to represent! Ten accessories include cats-claws, a kebab sword (?) a Katanga, three throwing stars, two odd-looking helmets and a truncheon with Arab-blade at one end and knuckle-duster at the other, which must be the oriental martial-arts equivalent of a Johnny Seven 'One Man Army'!

These two were donated to the Blog by Brian earlier in 2016, the fire fighter was mentioned above, but he came with another take on Captain Red-White-&-Blue! He gets to chose from a pair of swords or throwing stars.

Close-up of the same figure, there's not a lot to add, these are branded to OKK Trading and imported into the 'States by JPW International, I have seen them in the cheapie shops here, but not studied them closely.

LP/Lollipop Toys (who imported the Silvercorn sets) has upgraded theirs to 'Super Powerful' while having them made in a more Ninja-like colour of plastic! With those sandy breast 'plates' it's like they are trying to be heroes in a half-shell too!

That's because half of all brand-recognition is visual familiarity, the colouring of TMNT's being as distinctive a brand-mark as the name, or the shells! You'll notice from the box-art that these are available with a range of familiar-looking eye-masks and come in other shades of green (like TMN Turtles!).

A busy parent will see the colouring, the whacky bike, the two 'bad guys' on the other side of the card and buy these; then, when Junior kicks-off that they're not TMNT's, the parent (thinking on the hoof and lying like a banker) will tell them that maybe the Turtles were busy and recruited some humans to help!

You may have noticed that the first figure had light-up eyes? Well, so does this one and with the same card imagery is clearly from the same place, but is now a Samurai . . . yet looks like a Ninja! He also comes with a full set of accessories, a shield and two helmets - greedy!

A is for Army Men - RTM '17 - Part I - Older or Bigger Crappytoys!

This is one of four posts for which I've run out of Rack Toy Month to squeeze them into, so we'll go-over into September slightly!

Trying to sort them into any sort of order was impossible, so the titles, particularly of the first two posts are for the sake of having a title rather than any reflection on the contents of the post

Likewise; the numbering of the figures has NO significance whatsoever and imparts nothing other than that I needed to keep track of them as I photographed them, edited them and pushed them around the - eventually - four posts.

While the text will reveal some things are separately numbered when they turned-out not needing to be, while a 28 was added when in preparing the above shot and the correction shots I found a set which had missed being photographed in the main session!

This post will take us up to number 12 in the above shot, although 14 is here, we'll be looking at them again in part 3.

So 'New Type' 'Chinatroops'!

Number 1 are the dancing loons of today's post, and as will be seen below, as I was sorting them out and putting them away it became obvious 3 and 13 were the same lot, some are quite good but overall a really poor set, taken from various others (the chap on the far right is loosely based on an old New Ray/Toy Major German!).

While 2 are pretty standard fair, but I'd like to know who made 4 as they are quite good for this type of rack-toy shite - the helmets let them down but almost tie-them into the vintage and rare Kentoys Space Commandos! However a few head-swaps would give you a nice bunch of Rambo-style 'Vets'! I wondered if they might be clones of someone like Mars or TSSD, but they seem to be pretty unique?

So this is the full lot, I've crossed 3 and 13 off on the subsequent images. Conspiracy theorists may have something to say about the coincidence of 1 and 3 going with 13 but I can assure you it was only coincidence!

Two of the common current types (6 and 7) rather dwarfed by the 5's who are around 60mm and quite blobby in the detail department! As with all these modern, generic Army Men, there's always one or two which will paint-up OK, but that's always tempered by the poses you wouldn't (ahem . . . shouldn't!) give house-room to! 

In this case it's the SF-looking, Vietnam-era chap in a beret although of course the ex-Matchbox poses will paint-up better than the rest by dint of having better donors! Which reminds me - some of these sets (in all four (?) posts) are missing their ex-Matchbox figures as they have previously been sorted into elsewhere!

We've seen the type 6 several times already here on the blog I think, these are both from Brian Berke and show the Bely take on them with dark green and red-brown versions, together with the little keep/watch-tower.

Meanwhile, JPW are shipping them in grey and green. Brian also sent these and we can see his Crescent 'berserker' giving us a scale guide, they're not bad for 54mm, but pretty bad for usefulness!

The 27 lot from Post II turned out to be early versions of those I'd numbered 7, they are definitely better finished, but going on all the other variables - base shape, release-pin marks, blemishes in the mouldings they are the same figures from the same tool.

If you look carefully at the guy waving a Browning Auto and M16, you can see how the one at the bottom is well moulded, the one at the top is starting to lose the tip of the rifle, while the two between have truncated pop-guns, that's mould-degradation; right there!

Also; that bottom row, which are the ones from tomorrow's 27 shot, are in a less chalky material which will have helped. Conspiracy theorists can go ape over the 7/27 coming so soon after a 1/3/13, but that's life! I can't remember which of the sets were attributed to Funtastic, but they are elsewhere on the Blog.

A Dio Toys 'Trade' Co. (on Alibaba so a good chance it's just a marketing vehicle) are offering a set which looks to be somewhere between 6 and 7, having the useful chap with beret from 6 and the skeletal standing firer from 7, but a slightly different grenade thrower from either of them!

The Top Toys (both types) were here - on the Blog -  a couple of years ago, these Army Force 'Toob' figures being much nicer that the bagged Army Troop set, the Jumbo Trading I saw on feebleBay the other day but will have been carried by others, the New Ray though, I'm not so sure about.

I've seen them credited to New Ray but mine (in storage) are better finished and factory-painted, although I have a catalogue somewhere which I think has unpainted figures in the tub/bucket play-sets, so a bit of a question-mark.

For safeties-sake (or accuracies' sake) I'd think of them as 'probably' copies of New Ray (as 10 are), and I think 11, 12 and 26 in the top picture are all of a likeness, just different colours/materials and all three; too-small sample's to arbitrarily put together . . . yet!

Current sales image from an outfit called Ever Glory shows what appear to be I suspect may be PVC figures, size wasn't given but they have pulled poses from several of the previous sets and there are a couple which look to be more unique, although only cut'n'shut's or moved limbs.

Thanks

Peter Evans must be thanked for maybe half the above figures and in numbers, many more, and Brain Berke's contributions have been helping keep the Blog afloat for well-over a year now, equally some of the above will have come from Brian Carrick or Gareth Morgan so many thanks to all four, for their help or contributions (all of it volunteered) to this and the next three posts.