E is for Emergency Team

Just a quickie but it ties into the previous post, indeed it is the only real reason the previous post was published in the end! We've seen the current/more recent Halsall (now HTI) stuff here before, both as shelfies and collection, but this has been in the collection for 15-20 years I think and adds to the whole picture.

The obvious thing to note is that the contents are the same as Kentoys own-branded sets, so these are a contract-manufactured, or just catalogue-bought 'thing', with optional own-brand graphics set for Halsall, but originating with Kentoys.

However the Teamsters sub-branding or line brand-mark has - more recently - been used for stuff which originated with Pioneer! Yeah . . . it's almost been Pioneer month not Rack Toy Month this year, but that's purely coincidental - a lot of it was in the box I had to take-apart!

Quick close-up of the figures, always the driving force here at Small Scale World, the accessories have a lot in common with stuff in Supreme sets and as I said at the start of the month, one day I'll do comparison articles for all this stuff, and try to make more sense of it all for posterity!

Case in point here - this helicopter is a much poorer or cruder model than the Pioneer one we saw in a more recent HTI Teamsters set, but by itself, is far improved on a lot of these little EC-OH-Bell type small-seater models, out there from HK/China, the method of attachment and design of rotors and skids or wheels will be the final arbiter on how to ID most of them!

But there's more work to be done, and you do need the 'stuff' to make the calls, for instance, did Halsall take the Kentoys military set? I don't know! Were the figures in the two more recent emergency sets by/from Pioneer or Kentoys? They don't match these, but are close to the eight soldiers' sculpts, the bases being the clue, so maybe Kentoys, even though the other contents had switched to Pioneer . . .

. . . and that would give two sets/pairs of police and two sets/pairs of firefighters from the same source . . . it's almost never ending, but we will get as far as we can here in the years to come! And that's why I am still working on the firefighter page Brain and Theo have contributed-to and Chris has sent several figures for; time, it's all a matter of time!

The Five P's is for Prior Preparation Prevents Piss-poor Performance!

Yes it's six, but officialdom doesn't like to count the [unnecessary] cuss-word!

I hadn't realised how bad the images for this article were; I've just rejected most of them and deleted half, sticking the rest in an 'unused' sub-folder against probably never using them again! But I need this up here for the next article, can't reshoot as it's off in the storage unit and we've seen Kentoys before, so it'll add something and the weaknesses won't count for much in the grand scheme of things.

'Big Box' play set; dating from about the same time the large Supreme sets were in Wilkinson's each Christmas (about three or four years on the trot - have the dates somewhere) and Argos were carrying the Redbox one, so about 20 years ago? And, let's give credit where credit is due; there's a whole Christmas's worth of play-value in this set.

We've seen most of these before, but the two firefighter's are new, having an Anglo-French look to them, but mid-70's in a 1990-2000's set, and at the larger end of the 1:76^th-1:72^nd spectrum they will go with OO-layouts better then HO ones.

The VW 'camper' is as good as anything fromPraline, Roco, Brekina, Siku or the like with high tolerances on the production values, no flash and tight decoration/finishing, apart from the rather plain and unpainted wheels/tyres.

A lot of the contents have little to do with all but the biggest fire; cargo vehicles and the like, but again it's about play-value not realism!

Along with all the usual street-furniture 'make-weights', come these - not even in scale for the set - they will make very useful accessories for modern war-games, being scaled somewhere between 1:35^th and 1:48^th, they can be useful barricades or more general scatter scenery for games between 28mm role playing and 1:32^nd scale garden war sizes.

A is for "And Now For Something Completely Different"!

A title I fear we have had before at least once, but after that vintage Soviet-bloc stuff, we're going the other way entirely with this little post, we looked at the figures from "the other" Kentoys before, here, but the rest of the play-set had some stuff of interest; primarily to war-gamers and/or modellers/dioramists in the 1:72nd-scale bracket.

No matter how hard you tug your brain when doing rocket-launchers (the other month) there will always be a few who fall through the net (I found some other green ones while looking for this lot's tub!), and here another one, not cap-firing, but sprung-loaded and ready to scare some kittens!

I think the truck and bottom - green part - of the rocket's cradle started life as a fire appliance/ladder-truck, in red plastic! It's a sort of late-FROG or Scud mounted on a vehicle which would disintegrate if asked to actually launch the thing, but for a bit of battlefield tactical-support in an 'old school' game, it's ready to run!

 It's escort-vehicle is a reasonable rendition of a Panzer IV and possibly the source (for the pirates) of the twin-barrelled ethylene rack-toy effort which was kicking around the pound-shops and 99p-stores a few years ago? Colouring would need sorting, but again, when I bought this (early 2000's?) it was just a cheap, ready-to-go 1:72nd scale model - bargain!

While support/C&C crews can travel to and from the weapon store in relative comfort, with a pair of 'technicals' (Toyota and Honda I think?) in a rather fetching 'British racing-green'!

However, the budding gamer's table isn't complete until it's littered with gribbles (like Tribbles - lots of them and they get in the way - but not so furry) and the set didn't disappoint with multiples of all these; a gamut of civil riot-control barriers and preventative-signage, and military defence stores including what appears to be elephant caltrops! You got two each of the larger pieces and four each of the smaller ones.

That's it; another box ticked, Kentoys (the other one!) NO 29645 - Military Base 1:72 play set.

T is for Two - Kentoys

Sliding rapidly from the sublime to the ridiculous in this post, as far as the expression goes anyway, in actuall fact they are both of interest, but to different ends of the hobby, in several ways.

The 'old' Kentoys (KENTOYS, also Victory Industries - VIP) with one of the mechanics from KY35 Race Track Officials, we will look at them all together one day, I think I have the rest somewhere, but none are quite as mint as this chap who looks like he was made yesterday - not unusual with these; ending up with the Victory slot-racing sets, they didn't always get the same play as other toy figures.

The wheel/tyre (tire) is identical on both sides, with no sign of where breaks or an axle-stub might attach . . . maybe he's wheeling a Polo over to the stamping-shop to have its centre removed, now the mint is fully-grown?

The other or 'new' Kentoys was probably a phantom brand, which appeared and disappeared in the late 1990's/early 2000's with a range of nominally 1:72nd (closer to 1:64th - US slot-racing 'HO' scale) articulated lorries (big-rig trucks) and such like under the 'Wheelers' moniker; among which was a military set (NO 29645 - Military Base 1:72 Playset) with a rocket-launcher and transporter I think?

Anyway, it's all in the archive for a future A-Z Blogs post, but these were the set of eight figures that accompanied the set, we looked at the police set recently, around 25mm with thick bases making them a tad taller, and really quite good renditions of mid-1990's US troops with 'Fritz' helmets - apart from the Matchbox .30/.50 Cal, MG-gunner clone - slightly spoilt with a dodgy paint-job and each lettered on the base:

A - Man with Radio

B - Binoculars

C - Kneeling Firing ATGW

D - Advancing with M16 Across Chest, Sunglasses

E - Firing M16

F - Pistol and Grenade

G - Advancing with M16

H - Kneeling Firing HMG (similar to Matchbox figure)

T is for Two . . . Wheels Good . . .

Like Paratroopers and whatever the other thing was the other day . . . goes and checks the 'finished' folder . . . ; footballers (!), this has become another of those perennials, we return to from time to time, dinosaurs, insects and fish are all currently rising-up the queue as well, but today it's a return to two wheels; well, fourteen wheels or - if you want to be a total pedant fifty-seven wheels and at least three - visible - skids!

Roughly in the order they've come in or been shot since we last looked at them excluding a lead flat I think we looked-at separately . . .

Upon the demise of PoundworldPlus back in the summer, this was reduced to 50p with a further reduction at the till taking it to 43p or something! It was worth a punt for a small plastic motorcycle, of Kinder-egg quality? It needed squeezing together properly which I didn't notice until after the photo-shoot, branded to their ITP Imports and coming with a reasonable rendition of an executive type helicopter and a really crappy jeepney-thing which - if pink - would look like Barbie's beach-buggy!

I can't tell you what this cost as it was a present for my Brother on his Birthday! He's one of those people who has everything he wants, and if he really wants something else tends to go and get exactly what he wants himself, so he's very difficult to buy for, but he likes his motorcycles, so when I saw this . . . bingo! Noki are the same people who did the novelty egg-cup and toast-soldier sets, see Small Scale World passim.

I think this is the third time out for this chap, and the second involving contributions from Peter Evans, who recently sent me a very interesting set, with the unpainted black-plastic version. In the meantime I found another (slight colour variation) in the Storage lot, so shot all four together and they now have a new tub, all to themselves, although the black one is still in the bag awaiting next year's RTM.

CHiPs! From storage, from Kentoys, but not the Kenway Cycle Shop of 1950's London, but rather the 1990's Kentoys with a half-mile-long factory in Shatin, New Territories! Now into high-end, larger-scaled, die-casts, they started (as so many HK companies did) with cheaper plastics, these came with blistered sets or singly with larger trucks, in this specific case the 'Wheelers' fire-engine set. They were announced at 1:72 and - basically - would have been in competition with the similar New Ray and Supreme sets of that time; among others.

Is it a Harley Electra-Glide or a Honda Goldwing Aspencade? Now - there's a question for my Brother! Judging from the full-tank and headlight-fairing; I recon a Honda?

Old solid-lead motorcyclist (Postman?), I don't know if it's in Joplin and I haven't looked as I know it's not particularly rated (Adrian had it in his cheapie-tray at Sandown last), so probably a copy of anything similar-looking in the aforementioned tome, or more likely a home-cast which may have been made commercially available? The lead-guys dismiss this stuff (and melt it down!) like some in our polymer-branch of the hobby still dismiss HK stuff, but you know me; I'll post anything!

A bicycle, Cakeboards, resin, cake decoration, the resin pile is piling-up! Nice 54mm and a female subject which is never that common, so pleasantly unusual!

Mr. Berke sent a whole box of donations to the blog the other day with his uncommon generosity, and we will be looking at bits from it over the next few days, as some of it was very timely, but there was also this, Greenbrier/DTSC. I don't know if he and Mr Evans are in competition with their contributions, but this is an even larger scale than the candy-container bicycle we looked at in Rack Toy Month! Guy's; I don't know where to put them!

Thanks again to Brian, Peter and Adrian for some of the above!