Z is for Zombie Men . . . Women, Dogs and Mummies!

We've managed black cats, skeletons, a possible yeti, assorted monsters and a bunch of ghosts, there's only one trope left really, the undead! The risen from the dead and the rising from the dead! Let's tick those boxes for the finale!

Again, we saw these last year as shelfies (or sent images) I think, but Brian B then kindly sent some to the Blog so here they are in close-up, issued by Greenbrier in the 'States and DTSC in Canada.

It's a fact that all the best of these Halloween/Horror figures come from (or via/due to the efforts of-) North America. Apart from the odd thing like 99p Store's re-issue of Dolgen or the odd Amazon offer (see below), I've looked hard this year and the mountains of plastic tat available for Halloween are of such shite quality and ephemeral robustness they constitute an excuse for banning Halloween here altogether!

It's also a fact I'll get this whinge into one of the posts every year!

Both sides of the card for those who archive this kind of stuff - I do!

A comparison with the other set (SCS Direct in the 'States) which Peter Evans had sent to the blog in time for last year's posts.

Now, I mentioned Amazon, and I did find these on Amazon UK from Fun Express (aping that other firm's packaging again, Amscan . . . or Unique?) and they were quite cheap so, despite the imagery being less than helpful or hopeful, I ordered a set, and this is it, but it wasn't much fun!

What you get is 12 figures, which seem to be split 6 each of the two colours, one a drying-blood red, the other looking to be glow-in-the-dark, but not; just a greenish-white - interior decorators would call it apple-snow or some pretentious crap like that, think - raw tripe!

But when it comes to poses the pack disappoints. Totally random contents with four of some and one of others, I ended up with three poses, one in both colours. now they were cheap, and I did intend to get a couple more sets to see if there were other poses, or just to get all (?) three in both colours, but I kept putting it off as there's no guarantee (from my first sample) that even two more sets would achieve that?

If you try, good luck, they are sized to fit others and as army-builders are a useful addition to the canon, but with most rack-toy issuers getting quite good at packing balanced lots these days it is disappointing to see these, especially as they seem to go to the effort of counting colours? Just pick from 'pose-bins' . . . some firms have automated it so you get a whole or part-runner in each bag!

You can see how he goes well with the WWII set (far right - EMCE Toys 'Previews Exclusive, Zombies At War') we looked at a year or two ago, and he's not much smaller than the two grey zombie sets (far left), so they are useful, but you may need four or five bags to get a good sample?

The big mummy is marked similarly to Phidal stuff but is a softer material than they are currently using and seems to be from 2009, so he may be an early issue from this increasingly prolific (55 sets in the 2019 catalogue?) figure source, he's also another candidate for a Scooby-Doo related-set?

While I don't know anything about the other chap, I'd guess a 1980's rack-toy . . . possibly a He-Man/MotU rip-off? He's a very dense polyethylene or some type of nylon?

Finally Mr. Berke has sent a shelfie of the same black carded version of Dolgen's Mummy Army, and how come they keep getting ten poses while the skeletons have always been limited to eight? Some Pharaoh's-curse rubbish I'll bet . . . fussa-russa!

Thanks again Brian, thanks again Peter, see what turns-up in twelve-month's time!

A is for All Hallows' Eve - Bits & Bobs

Although coming soon after ITLAPD, we had a bit of a bean-feast last year on the 31st October, and while there shouldn't be (and technically - 'isn't'), there is always a sub-conscious pressure to perform similarly the following year, just in case a follower of the blog has been sat at home for the last 364 days, waiting . . . !

. . . and while I'm making no promises for next year, the Blog has managed to pull a small rabbit out of the hat, as at around the 1st August there was one image in Picasa, the next one, and nothing on the horizon, but due to donations from Brian B (Terranova), a contribution from Peter Evans and a couple of last-minute purchases, there is quite a bit to look at today,  which - apart from the bits in this post - we'll look at in the order they were shot/came in, so let's get started!

These three came in a mixed bag from a charity shop back in July, with the red one being one of those horrid, stretchy, cold, clammy, 'wet-feel' silicon things so beloved of certain kids, and not really destined to stay in the collection, but with nothing else for Halloween at the time it was photographed as worth a shot, and I liked how he could carry his commoner gum-ball/lucky-bag novelty skeletons like milk-bottles! As a size-guide, they are about 60mm.

The skeleton on the left in the previous picture is one of those modern semi-flat 'why did they bother?' types, but the other one is older and fully round, with the key-chain/charm-loop removed he'll pass muster in most of the recently issued skeleton armies, but he needs to find a weapon!

Brian also sent the rather sparse display from Scully & Scully's window on a Halloween theme, let's hope the Christmas one is as good as previous years, as they've barely tried for Halloween, although looking up flats the other day, it's clear that while they produce plenty of Christmas and Easter stuff, Halloween isn't something commonly available, being a more US-centric  thing maybe, although getting ever more commercialised in the UK these days. And I love the autumn trees.

Not really a Halloween thing; as I think it's from He-Man (and the MOTU!); but where else do I post an evil looking elf/sprite/Jawa type thing? It's not even evil, being the same 'annoying kid' character many productions have, to give the younger viewers something to connect-with while their elder siblings get into the latent sex and/or ultra-violence, think: the space monkey from Fireball XL5, Tribbles, Jaja Binks . . . and there's always a brat or two in Jurassic Park movies!

It's marked Hong Kong, and made of a spongy yet dense rubber of the biscuity variety which has suffered both crumbling damage and osmotic staining, it took several scrubs to get it clean enough for posting, having had a hand in someone's pretty active and apparently quite mucky childhood! Many thanks to Chris Smith or Jim (from Sandown) for this one I think?

News, Views Etc . . . T is for Toys in the Media

'News, Views Etc . . . ' this time got too-big to tag, so I've split it in two and the second part will publish later today, so as one-of-two:

It's been a while since we looked at one of these but toys are always in the media, for advertisers they are a double winner as they have both instant 'brand-recognition' and nostalgia attached to the imagery, upon which you tack whatever product you're pushing.

We've seen a few of these over the years, using a frame-runner motif to illustrate a consumer story in the City of London's business free-sheet.

'Rubber Ducks' (probably, actually; PVC) being used to illustrate, yeah! The Brexidiocy; easy to see the obvious when it's modelled in rubber ducks! I wonder how long it'll take the brexidiots to get it? Count them; it's all 27! Looks a bit like me and the PSTSM, but I'm facing the other way and giving better than I get back!

I'm sure most UK readers will have seen these; there are various versions and they have been running as full, half, quarter and eighth-page ads since before Christmas. Most of them seem to include a near-naked Bat Man in a silk smoking jacket (or dressing gown?), I can't think why - some connection to the recent Lego Batman movie no doubt, but a tad disturbing nonetheless!

Skeletor (the living dead) selling life insurance! Yeah, right! You're SO money-fucked-up dot com.

I love this shot, it was illustrating some tedious article on ISA's or something, but I recognise the railway (or railroad) track-side signs, I think they are vintage Bachmann, but I might be wrong; Model Power?. I've got some somewhere, but whether they were lose or on the card I can't remember and they are definitely in storage at the moment.

The yellow colour of the signs says US outline, our (UK's) railway signs were/are white, while the little jinks in the bases (for fixing down with picture-frame nails) is a very 'vintage' model railway thing. "WATCH CHILDREN", it's like something from the Scarfolk blog! And spot the Photoshop mistake with the shadows!

Coming Soon

Plastic Warrior's 32nd Plastic Toy Soldier Show

It's only a month to 'the show of the year' for plastic figures! Keep the date free of encumbrances by dobbing your close relatives into the authorities for something that comes with an automatic custodial remand.

Other Toy News

Pepper Pig

In the 'i' newspaper it was announced that the Canadian-based, London-listed Entertainment One (eOne) group have issued 65 retail licences for Pepper Pig in the US recently and the character became the best selling toy for pre-school girls in the same country over Christmas.

While Time Out carried a two pager on Pepper Pig last week which explained the 'crack for toddler's' appeal of Pepper and her brother George.

Wilco / Wilkinson's Erasers (35p for a set of three)

Crayola

Apparently 'dandelion' yellow is to be ditched from 24-colour boxes of the famous wax crayons, the replacement yellow is to be announced on 'National Crayon Day' (I kid you not!), this is only the third time in 132 years that they have dropped a colour (maize, orange-yellow and raw umber) and the first time they've binned one from the basic 24 set - although I thought the 'basic' was the twelve-pack?

Now call me cynical, no, really; call me cynical because I am and proud to be, but; could this be the beginning of regular 'Hey kids; buy a new set, we've changed another colour' announcements, maybe every NC-Day? Taking a leaf out of Monopoly's book with all the playing piece changes, leading to a necessity to get another big storage tub from the local discount-store, to put all the duplicate crayons in!

Alien archeologists will discover that not only did we consume our entire planet, but that we then stored it carefully in large plastic tubs, car ports and shipping containers! The triumph of Crayola's marketing over common sense.

Metro Wednesday 2nd March - and most other papers

Speaking of Monopoly, who saw the Monopoly boards in the papers recently (this is the Metro) helping launch the new round of the regular McDonald's promotion?

Disney

Disney's Chief Executive (CEO) Bob Iger has extended his stay at the top for another 18-months, now expected to depart in December 2019 and at the helm since 2005, he's currently in line for a $5m bonus!

99p Stores / Poundland

Poundland (who bought 99p Stores about a year and a half ago - see Blog passim), were themselves bought by the South African Steinhoff conglomerate a while ago now (September) and have just announced that the last of the 99p Stores (60-odd shops) are to be handed to the receivers (Alix Partners) as a stand-alone 'fail'. I've noticed that as Poundland they have been carrying some old 99p stuff such as the Toto chocolate gift-eggs, but very intermittently and with the second buyout coming so soon, are clearly still finding their amalgamated feet!

Gnomes

Walmart-owned Asda have announced a 400% increase in sales of garden gnomes over the last year! They have further announced an advance order of 800,000 incoming gnomes, so get the one with your name on it while it's fashionably excusable! The phrases 'who'd of thunked* it?' and 'over my dead body' spring to mind on this one!

Meanwhile in England, the Echillis Wood Model Railway Attraction reported that vandals had broken into the facility for the second time and decapitated dozens of gnomes, I may be no fan of them myself, but what sort of fuckwitted, low-life, idiot does that? Twice? More than 60 were damaged, months after the similar attack and the gnome village has been destroyed at the park in Warwickshire.

* Thunked and Re-thunked - old family 'comedy' words, as in 'I re-thunked it when I was sober and realised I was being a fuckwit'! Others are Rargee-kick (rabbit) and the more common Heafferlump for elephant

Cards

Not toys per se, but both also stock the sorts of key-rings or other novelties that can find a home in some of our collections so two news stories that caught my eye recently was a piece in a Sunday-supplement type thing, the other week, about how well Clinton Cards have recovered from their mini-recession, in an interview with the boss.

Only for the City-AM to carry a story this week about how Card Factory are now suffering as profits fall, "Quell Suprise Rodder's"; there was never the market for so many card, birthday and/or party shops and a lot have disappeared from our high streets in recent years.

Hornby Group

Closer to home Hornby have announced a pick-up in sales and issued an upbeat profits forecast, leading to a rise in their share price, so hopefully the Samurai katana that was flicked carelessly through the various catalogues (Airfix, Scalextric &etc.) this year might be left sheathed next year? Who knows; they might yet get some new WWI stuff out before the various centenary dates run out! If there was any joined-up thinking in the group, Airfix and Hornby Railways could get a WD train-set out before September '18?