C is for Cinematic Celebrities and Cartoon Characters

All the other sci-fi/fantasy stuff tends toward the realm of TV and the moving pictures, to which cartoon characters and fairy tales add a few other harder to classify items, and that material is the direction of this post!

 

A lovely 54mm Barbie, who could have gone in the previous post, as an obvious astronaut, but she's better employed kicking this post off. Credited to Mattel Canada, she is probably the same size as the US shelfied one, with a different card, Brian B sent us, a few years ago, and of which I had no clue to the size - see the Barbie Tag.

 

And - of course - a small scale, solid figurine of a much larger articulated doll, this is exactly what Andy Warhol was on about when he famously said "Pop [culture] will eat itself", something you can also see in comics and Graphic Novels now, with endless mash-ups and crashing of characters into each-other's 'universes', in the end it all gets very silly with Star Wars-Angry Bird-Deforms, or, take The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen; on the one hand, a fine, stand-alone, escapist action-movie, on the other hand, utter nonsense and rubbish, which had several authors' spinning in their graves! Internecine naval gazing!

 

Three Power Rangers, these are the Kellogg's premiums I think, and they clearly seem to have only done the two poses, and covered the various Rangers with colour variations! Although the ladies have different heads, so maybe it's just the guys who share a sculpt . . . does it matter? I've got the paragraph!

 

Gulliver's Supergirl premium from Pepsi, on the left, beautifully painted by someone, and while the paint has been chipped a bit over the years, I'll leave it, maybe even touch it up one day? Interestingly, she's the same sculpt as the Res Plastic for Kinder (and PIF Gadget?) one, so some cross-fertilisation or mould-swapping there, I think! I should add that I now believe only the 30mm ones were issued by Kinder, these 54mm's wouldn't fit in the eggs.

 

On the right is a soft PVC-alike Superman figure from NJCroce of bendy toys fame, how they came and went in a couple of toy-seasons?! He's not a bendy, just a slightly wobbly figure, clearly they haven't finished with their DC licence! 

 

Two vast blobs from Argentina, and you can't beat Argentina for 'toy' appeal! I think they may be from Kamen Rider (is that a crude attempt at Kuuga on the left?), but what do I know, very little on that subject, so Atomic-Super-Kaiju-Boy is still in the frame! They are about 120mm and showing that Argentine favourite, lashings of silver paint!

 

Army Ants/Combattini/Terminators, we've seen them before, no black ones this time, but a new colour, bright pink, and the details are on the Tag. But I noticed some seem to be missing separate weapons, and/or have holes for accessories, of which, one, a radio-set, is still attached, so I now have to hope I have some of the missing items in the bits-zone!

 

Pretty sure these are Kinder now, and probably quite recent/contemporary, we saw a Chewbacca from Chris I think, not that long ago, and they seem to be taking from the 'classic' characters.

 

A Disney sucker, we've seen several generic 'monster' characters and a superhero, so I'm guessing some recent playground craze/blind-bag thing which I missed? Along with what I suspect are two Pokémon?

 

Marx Simple Simon in chalky-blue plastic, and an unknown action figure who may be a knock-off of something more obvious like the GI Joe's or that Airfix line . . . I really don't do action figures, unless they are Galloob, or Matchbox, or . . . doh! And is he a diver or a spaceman?

 

Odd gnome to the left and swivel-head alien to the right who was probably a key-ring, or hand-bag/mobile-phone hanger, and I think it glows in the dark, but forgot to check! 

 

Small scale bits include a DFC or similar revolting peasant (and he's rebelling, too, boom-boom!), a couple of Bluebird Zero Hour/Code Zero, a small vinyl shuttle from Star Trek (Playmates?), a Marx 'Kin's cat (Figaro), Christmas cracker angel orchestra figure, and a lovely fully-glazed, ceramic little-baby-Jesus, who might be a French fève?

 

I think these are all Moshlings? But they could be Zomlings, Ugglys pets, Super Zings, Super Things, or even Shopkins/Grossery Gang, I really don't know, and purple eye 'shadow' seems to be a feature of most of them!

 

They are mostly in the Capsule Toy/Blind Bag queue, I started clearing a while ago, and I'll make some sense of them here, just to get the boxes ticked, but there was this bagful, as a part of one of the donations.
 

Again thanking Adrian Little, Brian Carrick, Colin Penn, Isaac, Matt Murphy, Martin Fahie, Michael Mordant-Smith, Paul, Peter Evans and Trevor Rudkin for everything on the day.

V is for Various Venerable Vehicles

Not as many vehicles as some shows, but then Sandown has always been the show for vehicular stuff, while PW really is about figures, although there were enough in the end to split them into two posts, land stuff this time!!

 

I'd like to think this might be Tri-Ang Minic, but I can't find it described as such anywhere, among all the other Minic-branded tanks in at least three size groups, so it may well be a knock-off, or rival, trying to look like Minic?

 

The 'Centurion' turret in particular has a lot in common with several Minic efforts, but the whole machine is a soft polyethylene, against the early phenolic, or less stable 'styrene, which gives us the mostly - these days - warped, Minic originals?

 

Around 1:48th and almost impossible to decide which end is the front, I went with the end having more rivets as possibly being the back, with inspection hatches, and the motor under it! And the wheels reveal it got some serious play, probably over some time and was somebody's much-loved toy.

 

Seen before here at Small Scale World, many years ago, as I have a loose one, and put it on a transporter for a photo-shoot, this one is pristine, and generic-boxed, although the box has seen better days and will get a damp ironing at some point to restore its shape a tad!

 

Based reasonably accurately on a French Panhard EBR of the early Cold War, probably taken-off the Dinky die-cast, the barrel is a plug-in to allow for a smaller box, a common trope with these Hong Kong tanks, as we saw with the Blue Box one, the other day.

 

Hong Kong smallies and the remnants of a die-cast artillery piece, all grist to the mill, with the Humber truck being the version I called Type 1B, the Hong Kong marked second-generation copies of the Kleeware originals, with the solid windows and steel axles.

 

Navy or Air Force? There were civilian sets of these, and with signs of reinforcing of the tool, on the bed-underside, I'm suspecting, without checking, second generation copy of the Kamley (

Simon & Rivollet) 

thanking Adrian Little, Brian Carrick, Colin Penn, Isaac, Matt Murphy, Martin Fahie, Michael Mordant-Smith, Paul, Peter Evans and Trevor Rudkin, for everything they did at the show.

B is for Bonus Booty Bounty!

Right, it's been too hot, did anyone notice, it's been just too warm to do much beyond get to work, drag oneself into the shower, and catch up on sleep lost elsewhen! Also, I've had a head-cold since Monday afternoon, I'm only just escaping, now, so I've had two reasonable reason-excuses for my posting tardiness!

 

Did I mention there was a toy soldier show last weekend? Well, there was, and I went! However, and due to their connections, one way or another, and the fact I haven't photographed them quite the same as in some previous years, I'll be including some stuff in the final thematic posts, which I didn't actually get, on the day.

 

This post covers those two 'intros', and then we'll have an overview, or sorting shots, and then I might have started shooting the posts I was intending to shoot each night this week, but which heat and health prevented! I mean, you know as a well as I do; man-flue feels potentially fatal, while you've got it! Especially when you've been scheduled a six-day work-week and the Sun's going supernova!

 

And, while I blurb this up, I'm listening to this new discovery on YouTube;

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0wnkludvfI&list=RDH0wnkludvfI&start_radio=1

 

So, on the Friday before the show, I popped-over to a mate's house, to help with show-stuff, as, due to various factors, some car-sharing on the day was involved, but as a result I got this, the contents of a small-scale and bits drawer, which I have, due to its relationship with the events the next day, included in the sorting of that other plunder! Especially as it increased one of the 'themes of the day' by a third!

 

And while I was also supposed to pick this up on the Friday, only to then hope it turned-up on the Saturday, before actually taking delivery on the Sunday, I've also sorted it into the loot-posts!

 

It was actually from John Curry, of the History of Wargaming Project blog - being a few items from his evilBay account, and while I didn't see him there on the day, he used to do the shows, and I well remember, him and his brother having a stall at Dave McKenna's Birmingham shows, back in the day, which always had interesting stuff, so, it's in, for the complete Plastic Warrior weekend plunder pile!

 

Also, as these are seen above, and stay together in the 'mocherette' zone, I haven't sorted them into the thematic piles, and they might as well go here, it's not exactly a set-the-world-alight post, but it's a start! Mostly Kinder, with a few Italian (Barlux/BMG) in the top left-hand corner, and a few Westair (et al) in the bottom left corner, along with one of their newer, soft poured-metal figures in 50mm, bottom-centre.

M is for Miscellaneous Modelled Miniatures

This lot dates back to March of last year, when a group of us had our Christmas breakfast and 'show and tell' a tad late, well, a quarter of a year late! Anyway, while indulging in friendship, good home-cooked food and a bit of reminiscing, both Adrian Little and John Begg gave me tubs of bits . . . I respond well to tubs of bits, bags of bits, boxes of bits . . . !

 

These were from Adrian, who had noticed the similarity between the old MPC sculpt and the Hing Fat 'NASA-nauts', with simplified sextant and skien of rope. A green-washed (verdigris!), probably Kinder Napoleonic/colonial era staff officer 'mocherette' completes the line-up.

 

You can also see that the better-marked Hing Fat (or copy?) is the worst sculpt, and while I've lost the reference, I know there was a better yet, Hong Kong marked one, although the definite Hing Fat, on the left, was also originally, Hong Kong rather than China marked. Hing Fat did - of course - also issue straight copies of the MPC chaps in their slighter Mercury/Gemini suits.

 

I think John gave me this chap, large, around five or six inches (in storage now!), and possibly Marx? But I don't know, and lots of manufacturers had a stab at larger beach/garden wagons, stage-coaches and the like, which from his posture is what he might be from, rather than a horse rider, but I don't even know that for sure?

 

This seems to be an ex-Imperial Toys moulding, you can see where all consumer information has been removed from the chest area. Twin-headed dragon/monster in a softish PVC or similar polymer, does anyone recognise it?

 

An articulated baby, in a soft polyethylene, in a Kinder style, but possibly too large for Kinder, so another question-mark? Damaged Britains Jesey cow, probbaly Kinder elephant (Disney's Jungle Book?), and a Blue Box (or Redbox?) crocodile.

 

Poor shot I'm afraid, but they will mostly return here one day in other round-ups or comparisons, the plastic truck is nice, the old-fashioned car is probably Kinder, can't remember on the black space vessel, but I think it was marked?

 

Bottom left is a pull-back-and-go motored novelty from the pocket-money shelf, the white die-cast is a sub-piracy of something better I suspect and the Matchbox Jeep with recoilless rifle completes the group.

 

Having seen the Cosmix knock-off of MUSCLE the other day, here's Remco's answer to Mattel's import from Bandai, they are original sculpts, slightly larger (heading for the full 54mm), and more recognisably wrestlers, that some of the MUSCLE figures, who presaged Skibidy Toilet or Brainrot, by being made out of spanners, chains, bolts, shop tills, tyres, Rubik cubes or whatever, one was a pile of combination-locks!

 

Mixed lot of Nottingham Mafia output, but in these coloured plastics probably from a Milton Bradly tie-in board-game, the Space Marine's Space Hulk maybe? Or one of the add-on/extension packs?

 

Odds and sods for the spares boxes, aircraft kit parts, a base from something (anyone recognise it?), a Kamley/KS gun in need of a wheel/axle assembly and a ball-bearing puzzle, apparently given away by a railway company as part of the forced privatisation which has proven so successful, against all the naysayers had to say at the time!!! Although it might just be an 'Intercity 125' giveaway?

Thanks to Adrian and John, all useful stuff, one way or another! Plastic Warrior in less than Five Days!

BMSS is for More Plunder, 2 of 2

The other half of the BMSS plunder, I literally split the folder this morning so there's no theme to either post, but this is by coincidence both mostly small scale, and mostly stuff Adrian gave me in a little tub, as a mixed lot.

 

Seen better days, with Plasticine bases and glued arms, but small scale'ish (o gauge), chalkware composition, in the style of Drevopodnik, and new to pile. They might be from the Soviet Bloc (post-war) or earlier, and German, I'm hoping they will be findable in my Schiffmann Sammlekatalog, next time I have it out?

 

Two Spot-On's to add to the stash, and two of the Kinder 'Mocherette', based on the Lone Star Metallions which might not be Lone Star (given that Hubley, Kresege, 'Hong Kong' and others, also issued them), one copper 'chromed' over the base metal, the other bronzed to an almost black-olive.

 

Reduced-size copy of the Brtiains Llama, a Hong Kong pack mule and one of the Torres wine-bottle giveaways, make an interesting trio of animals in polyethylene.

 

When I first started finding these, years ago, well, about 40 years ago, I was intrigued, I would get one or two at each show, and it took maybe a decade to get the last colour, they then became one of those things I'd seen the origin of, so 'knew', but could never remember, so didn't know! Eventually they were remembered long enough to blog (charity shop purchase I seem to recall), as Waddington's Lost Valley of the Dinosaurs figures.

 

And I now have so many of them I don't know what to do with them! They would paint up nicely as ranked war gaming pieces, but they have officers pistols, not rifles, so don't lend themselves's to ranks, or files! And how many role players (28mm) need slightly small (25mm) explorers, and what would they pay for them, when you can find up to 16 in a charity shop! The law of unintended consequences!

 

Odd smallies here with a Sistema Cadillac from Italy, in an odd scale of 1:77th. A few of the Slaters/Merit (Collis Plastics), home painted, and the weirdest of the three mico-AFV's which various rack-toy issuers used as filler in their sets in the 60's and 70's, joining the obvious Daimler armoured car and 25lbr type gun is this odd little amphibious landing craft/jeep/pop-up target/carrier hybrid, which has never been explained!

 

A bit of Thomas Wild West, an LB caveman, Matchbox Space 2000 'future warrior', and a kit figure in 1:48th scale of a WWII German tank crewman, alongside a later Briains head, farm, I think?

 

Atlantic, Davy Crockett figures, he survived an enraged bear, Indians and two demented donkeys, only to fall to the dastardly Mexican forces of General Antonio López de Santa Anna!

 

Three of the gold, post-Giant Greco-Romans we looked at on the other Blog, from two of the sourses, a Meccano for Hornby policeman and a larger firefighter, taken from Dinky, I think, or Corgi, but here probably from a larger plastic beach/garden toy?

D is for Donation - Chris - Odds and Sods

It's always a bit sad to come to the end of these donation posts, as it's fun to cover so much eclectic, unknown, or odd stuff, in one post, let alone a series of them, but all good things come to an end, and here we are, with the 'odds & sods' of Chris's parcel.

 

Should have been in the vehicle post, and I can't remember why I shoved it in the odds' folder, so it might have been by mistake? Jig-Toy puzzles from Kellogg's, or are they, as with all things, premium, we've learnt over the years that there were usually multiple issuers, and often more issues than the first two editions of 'Cluck' listed, and given the detailed breakdowns of colours over the years, the fact that we see five different shades of blue here, would suggest they can't all be Kellogg's! But they are all the same polyethylene, probably UK made ones.

 

Another take on the little 'bears in bags' (fridge-magnetic bags!) were these broach-configured ones, although this chap is a cut above the blow-moulded versions, having four points of articulation at hips and shoulders.

 

Half of a rudie-nudie lady key-ring we've seen before here, and a golf tee, I saw a set of Gophers the other day which were an amusing reference to the movie Caddyshack, but these naked babes with their heads in the sand have been around much longer, and I'll be adding it to the 'Adult' post, with a few other bits which have come-in, soon.

 

A mix of Blue Box (Hidden Adventures), Blue Bird (Mighty Max) and similar micro-action-figures, and one which appears to be magnetic. I didn't shoot her well, but the beauty of this stuff is that we will see it again when we have proper overviews of their sub-genres.

 

"We want . . . a shrubbery!!", the rubber lump on the left is from the HG Toys cavemen sets, and I used to think it was Bata! The big fir is almost certainly from the same Tri-Ang railway set as the hopper-car in the vehicle post the other day . . . last month!

 

This is interesting; unmarked, the horse-stalls and walls are hard-plastic, the roof is soft 'ethylene, and the whole has a lot in common with the Jean Höfler buildings, from their carded sets, but the buttressing round the corners is very-much in the same style as the 'wall' jump in the Palitoy-Parker horse-jumping game? Not to say it's by either maker, it remains unknown to me, although Jean did do a Wild West town, that might have had a stable?

 

Kinder, Onken, and similar parts, from an early Pixie type (centre), to quite recent, and I've explained before how these go with all the other bits, to be built into whole examples from time to time, in sorting sessions, so all useful stuff!

 

This was a lovely find by Chris, but it's started to annoy me! I have done lots of Googling, and evilBay searches, over the month or so since it arrived, and while I've found all sorts of Plasticine sets and tie-ins with various licences, I can't find the farm-themed set I have to assume these fences were designed for, can anyone help?

 

A fine piece of 60's or early 70's key-ring, novelty tat! This seems to be a better, more robust version of the rather flimsy all-plastic ones I remember from our childhood, and which often turn-up on feebleBay, so I assume it's a bit earlier, with riveted construction and metal parts. Next job is to identify the correct pellets/bullets, of which there are numerous in the stash somewhere!

 

A cornucopia of odds to finish; the 'Snap!' picture dice and tumbler may be quite modern, and definitely Christmas cracker prizes, the bubble pipe seems to have had somebody try to use it as a real pipe - bet that tasted nice! Two score-spinners (also Christmas cracker fayre), a chromed knife, which could be cracker, gum ball, or something more like 12" Wild West dolls?

 

A windmill/whistle, traditional tin-plate clicker and a 'joke shop' severed-finger, complete a nice mix of novelties. The black fleck, might be off one of the hard-plastic, kit trains, I'll have to check!

 

As always, I feel I can never thank the guys enough for all this stuff, it really does fill holes, complete pictures' and ask new questions. So many, many thanks to Chris for the above, and to both Chris Smith and Peter Evans for all the stuff we've seen in the last couple of few weeks. This will be the 885th use of the Tag 'Contribution', which I didn't use for the first few years, so, some sixth of all posts have involved other people sending/saving other stuff, pictures, or data for/to the Blog, that's awesome kindness.

 

I don't know what my favourite was this time, possibly, strangely, the diminutive Marx/Blue Box rack-toy soldiers, simply because they were new colours and had both runners complete, but both the stable and the Harbutt's fencing in this post were good finds, and I've highlighted others - the WWI US bubble-stalk, the bobble-head tank, the pencil sharpeners? All sorts! While from Peter's lots, possibly the four colour/four 'team' Sci-Fi set in the MUSCLE style, or the China pack with Duke Kaboom, maybe the two wooden farm flats?

 

Thank you both.