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.

F is for Follow-ups - A Bunch of Them!

Over the last few weeks several things have come in or turned up one way or another, adding to previous posts, so time for a mixed follow-up on various subjects!

This was included in Chris Smith's recent donation to the Blog, and is a variation on the Lone Star shooting-game Indians' score-20 figure as we looked at recently (I won't post a link, it's about three posts now, but the Long Star tag will take you to all of them!), which seems to suggest (given other things I know) that they were only available in red or yellow, but were available in both colours, probably alternating set-by-set.

Paul Morehead; editor of Plastic Warrior magazine; has informed me there were two other score-numbers, but that follow-up is due in PW itself, at some point soon, I believe!

Following-on from the Gem/Festival/Culpitt skiing cake-decoration posts before Christmas, I found the other skier from Festival going cheap on feebleBay the other day (£1.99 for the pair?), she (I think it's a she?) is bare-headed with long locks and goes with the bobble-hatted chap from this post.

Also in Chris's lot was a variation of the  Hong Kong-for-Culpitt number 10-shirt footballer reaching for a long-ball, he's in better condition than mine and shows that there must be a ball out there with a little hole in it, rather than the common one with a locating-stud for the holes in some of the bases!

In the meantime - Image courtesy of Brian Berke - and as a scaler/foil to a couple of lovely Timpo 'Great Helm' knights, this is actually a follow-up to a post on Ed Berg's lovely toy Blog, with the Grumpy/Angry Dragon from Safari! Brian did also send me shots of several Safari dragons about a year ago, and I'm afraid they are still in the queue; it's all coming - promise!

Another one from Chris, and what a peach - the complete set of spigot-member'ed (well what else can they be called?!!) paratroopers from the Lion Group set we looked at here; Parachute Gun Set. He sent me a forth with most of the engorged spigot removed and I will spend an hour or so removing the rest to give me a 'fake' variation!

The real reason for the bitty post this morning was because in sorting the ceramic cat into the collection, I found I already had one, hence this! I assume Fairings, but they could be a more 'art pottery' thing, anyone recognise the designs to put with an artist or studio; one of the Cornish/West Country mob?

Chris also sent this interesting bag which could be a cereal premium bag or a cake decoration retail bag? I favour the latter option/likelihood due to the flakey paint; painted items in breakfast cereal have pretty much been confined to PVC, where the paint is 'welded' on.

It's a two figure version of the sets we saw here recently, and may have been bagged by a dealer, or be a sign that the stock was stretched-out toward the end of its run; they are the figures I consider to be the latter ones, and have no dogs (so could be a PC thing; 'riding' rather than 'hunting'?), but still add to the whole sample.

Back to Chris's beefeater, and the very next day, (you can't make this stuff up sometimes), I went for a Christmas breakfast with some fellow-collectors, and on way, Adrian - who was giving me a lift - popped into an auctioneers to pick up some lots he'd won earlier. In one of the mixed lots was the based figure, which he chucked at me as he got back in the car!

I went from none in 54-years to two in less than 24-hours! That's beyond co-incidence, that's synergy! Co-incidence would be seeing one in a tourist kiosk a few weeks or months-later, or having a mate say 'I've got one of those somewhere' but to be given two in less than a day was a bit weird . . . I think it proves the Gods are smiling on the blog!

He's marked MADE IN HONG KONG on the plinth's step and 335 across the small of the back, and is a hard polystyrene.

And many thanks as always to Brian Berke, Chris Smith and Adrian Little (Mercator Trading).

R is for Regular Round-up!

Like yesterday's football/footballers; for many years we didn't really look at paratrooper toys here, but a couple of years ago I did  an overview of what I had here at the time, and since then with a lot of help from New York and keeping an eye-out, we've had quite a few re-visits.

I still haven't found the 'in storage' box, but I spotted a few buried the other day and it may be with them, so perhaps before Christmas I'll have united the two sizeable samples and we can have a better look or over-view of the genre - a favourite here, now.

How they come in! I bought these in Basingrad on the 9th, two from Wilkinson's/Wilco, the other (Phidal Peter Rabbit) from TKMaxx, the monster [snake!] skeleton was really for Halloween, but you've seen it now - it'll look great with skeleton armies though! Phidal are going to need a couple of days now, there's around ten sets, or part-sets in the queue, and anyway it's the paratroopers we're looking at now.

So, N is for Not That Unique Are They! We've looked at their 54mm solid paratroopers here and we've looked at the blow-mould poses as both a blow-mould and solid by other brands or under other brand marks, but under Unique - as I said - these sets of four are in Wilko's at the moment.

I have a set of 12 in the storage lot which I think also came from Wilkinson's but about eight or nine years ago (possibly the green-carded set), while an earlier set existed. The drop in contents reflects inflation, but a drop from 12 to 4 in one step has a whiff of greed too, especially if you were running the twelve for 15-20 years, prior to the sudden count-drop!

A drop to eight would have been a better start, and if you're dropping to four, why not issue one of each colour?

This is a make-weight for the post, the recent D&D Distribution catalogue shot showing the currently common figures we've seen here under several brands already, they are the ones with the closed canopy and single-shroud which I don't like very much! Also, someone needs to have a word with the copywriter!

We've also seen these several times but I couldn't remember if we'd seen a four-blister one, I know Brian B has sent shelfies of Jaru 3-blister packs and I've bought or shelfied two- or three-blister cards, but have we had a four? We have now! Kandytoys of Exeter.

From the archive comes Norton-Thomson's 1988 Lion Group 'Pocket Money Toys' catalogue, and a different take on the paratrooper toy altogether; they are fired into the sky by a long, rigid . . . err . . . 'member' placed . . . err . . . between their thighs, the . . . err . . . 'snake's head' engaging with a steel spring and catch mechanism . . . well endowed lads, but - ouch!

"Most inappropriate toy in INGERLAND EVER!"; he spittle-flecks down the 'phone to the Daily Wail's 'really important news' desk, for lesser bloggers to re-post! Also issued under TNT branding as The Sky Devils Paratroopers as code M7626A.