S is for Seen Elsewhere - Sci-Fi Library (2) Kits, Movie Franchises and Movies

The other half of the Sci-Fi stuff I scanned a while back for elsewhere, and it's less about toys and more about research/information and some kit bits, I'll start with!

 

Mentioned when I showed the recent purchase of a late edit of his general list, this is Burn's Sci-Fi and Figures list, which as well as covering figures, also includes the odd dinosaur, monster, insect and bird kits etc . . . you see, off the back of little pamphlets like the original M.A.P./Military Modelling guide, Burn's and his co-respondents, did ALL the work, which sites like Scalemates took to the next level with their interactive member-pages and issue/brand timelines.

 

So when people bang on about a few dinosaurs and pretentiously add "Researched by . . . ", while adding a bunch of feeBay/Worthpoint images, understand it's just plagiarism! Pretending to do the work, actually done by other people thirty or forty years ago, while failing to credit them, is about as low as you can go . . . for a few clicks?

 

This is a Fine Scale Modeller 'special publication', which is really just a feast of exhibition-quality models, posed against realistic backgrounds or dioramas, and as such, is really another coffee-table book, but a rather nice one!

 

While this is a more general look at the smaller of the two 'big' enduring franchises, I've not got much invested in Star Trek, as there haven't been that many smaller-scale or solid figures in the pile of memorabilia issued over the years, but Playmates gave us small 'Action Fleet' types, there was that set I bought from Colin Penn at a Plastic Warrior show a few years ago, and the current (not in this book)  EMCE sets are still out there, so some stuff can be found in 'our' area of interest!

 

Then there's the other franchise . . .

 

This, minimally illustrated, is an encyclopaedic listing of everything known to hardcore-fans, from the release of the original movie, until the release of the final film in the second trilogy back in the 2005. After which, I think, due to first, the tsunami of new stuff and second, the coming of the Internet, updates became superfluous.

 

But Rebel Scum, the Internet fan-base, helped compile it, and it's THE list of pillow-cases, soaps, wallpapers, novelty lamps, and yes, toys and kits, from the early years of the Star Wars phenomena, though to, say, 2005 - nearly 30-years-worth of marketable tat, alphabetically listed, by manufacturer!

 

This only gets as far as the 1st/forth movie, and may be by the same Beckett? It's a tie-in with a then major Star Wars retailer, Beckett Hot Toys, and is arguably better illustrated than the previous, but more dated now by having the 1999 cut-off, in listed data.

These are really 'bestiaries' of one type or another, similar to the much more expensive, glossy, hard-backed, coffee-table 'technical manuals' which ran around the same time, but relying on mostly black-and-white line drawings. I use them to just find-out the names of things. Mostly from the first three 'classic' movies

 

While this is not one of the just-mentioned vintage technical manuals, but rather a more modern publication, best described as one section of the various Rebel Scum wiki's, in book form, and while it may be of use to you, I only bought it as a shelf-filler, because it was cheap, and can't remember it giving me anything useful, but that's in the context of me being the 'general reader' here, not a full Star Wars nerd!

 

While among the minor franchises, this is a useful tome, but then for collectors, Schiffier have never (? I stand to be corrected) produced a duff one, and I have maybe a dozen of their titles now? Like the Star Wars' ones above, this has non-toy stuff, and you find yourself remembering all sorts, as you flick through it!

 

While this pair are both bestiaries; the former using TV- and publicity-stills, the latter, more line-drawings, but helping to quickly identify two other franchise 'universes' I don't follow closely. There are several similar titles in the Tolkien 'zone', but that's never been with the toy books and wasn't shot with the rest, leave alone scanned with these! Add the Dungeons & Dragons guides, we saw while looking at the 'Gygax' stuff a while ago, and you've most of the monsters you could ever need!

 

While these two, are such useful research-tools I keep them with the collectables library, rather than the Sci-Fi/Fantasy library (where the Tolkien stuff is!), and do dip in them from time to time, especially when I can't remember the name of a movie or character which is on the tip of my tongue/in my peripheral thoughts!

There are lots of books like these, and I have more general ones, another on Westerns, and a very useful old film-library catalogue, from when clubs and societies could order films, in their 'cans', so show at schools, village halls or such-like.

 

We had a film-club at school, which anyone could attend, and I remember specifically seeing what were considered 'X' films, at the time, like Straw Dogs, the seminal Eastward movie The Beguiled, as well as fun stuff like Bugsy Malone and I think we had Once Upon a Time In the West? I think we had some Bond films too, I can't remember all of them, but we had two or three films per term, in the main hall, on a full-screen, this would have been 1977 - '80.

ITLAPD - is for Oi Take Long 'Ard Peep at Dease!

Ah-Haarrr! It be that toim of the yearrr again, when those of a surrt'un disposition make some effort to talk loik a demented West-countryman, in the purrr'soot of sound'in loik a poirrate!  Thankfully, yer land-lub'in deck-swarrbs, this nun-sense only gets a paragraaf orrr two, and this be one uv-em!

 

One of the seen-elsewhere shots announcing International Talk Like a Pirate Day, a right old mix, and all seen here piecemeal, in the past, on past pirate days! So a bit of a 'what can you spot' job, and it makes for a decent intro' shot!

 

Brian Berke sent a bunch of stuff to the Blog the other day, and among them was this framed pair of Ron Embleton artworks, watched-over by Captain Pugwash, who seem to inveigle his way into every ITLAPD these days! From the page size, I'm guessing the right-hand image is either from Look & Learn, or Tell Me Why? World of Wonder was a smaller 'standard' or modern format, the other two were quite big. With the left-hand image cropped out of that issues cover?

 

Three sets of the Supreme / SP-Toys pirates, seemingly as a generic (there may have been something on the back of the cards?), similar to other we've seen, but interesting for the re-use of Supreme's Wild West sets' accessories!

 

A set of Pirates from Accoutrements, more on these in a later post, but for now a set of four forty-millimetre filibusters, in a carded blister.

 

There was more in the 'mixed intro' post, but thing's got moved, so that's it, but we're off on another regular round-up of all things pirate, which have come in over the last 12-months or so, we might even get some of the stuff which has been sitting here for several years now, out!

W is for We Buy This Shit - Magazines

It's been a while since we saw what's on the news-stands, which these days include precious little news, beyond the downright depressing, I mean, who had World War Three on their card, for before the end of the year?! So, here's three which caught my eye, to the point of purchasing them?!

 

Horrible Histories usually have complete tat-shite on their covers, but are worth watching for the odd occasion when there is something that fall within the collector's frames of reference, and for me, this was one such issue!

 

There's a side collection of skeletons, and a bag of generic rats/mice somewhere, so that was good-enough, but then there were two maggots for the insect pile! Skeleton key-rings used to be a standard fairgrown prize for the lower scores on sideshows, like the duck fishing, hoopla or shooting booths.

 

A frighteningly realistic tongue and faker soft eye were the other novelties, but I wonder if the ring-jointed skeleton isn't actually an old tool from the 1960's or '70's? It looks very similar to others I have in the collection, of greater vintage than a few months ago!

 

This is last year's mag, yet it still took him more than six weeks to scrape one off of that there The Internet . . . outstanding, Bushey! Keep it up!

 

https://projectswordtoys.blogspot.com/2025/10/horrible-histories-freebie-skeletons.html 

 

I have no idea about PJ Masks; I've not seen it, not Googled it,

but I know it's one of the 'new generation', alongside Paw Parol!

 

I bought these to pose with small scale space stuff in the future!

Shades of batman movies in these! 

 

BBC Swashbuckle magazine.

 

A bit too cartoony, but they're here now!

Take the faces off with spirits and they'd be better. 

 

All the toy cards were supplied by Kennedy Enterprises, presumably a wholeseller, as you often find similar stuff on other magazines a few months apart, or slight variations on the same magazine as we've seen here with the Dino'mags/Dino' offers. And I've covered the fact that there are donation bins about the place for moving these cards if the kids aren't interested - Libraries, charity shops and some supermarkets carry them.

O is for Once Upon a Time, in June! Introduction

So, slowly catching up, and because this year's show was later, the reports are not as late as last year . . . Bargain! The Plastic Warrior show plunder reports for 2025, a year I couldn't image getting to when I was a kid!

 

Everything got a bit muddled-up this year, and some things seemingly didn't get shot (none of Isaac's bits are in this shot), so as per the last couple of years I'll add a thanks list at the end of each post, but the pink box was a donation from Peter Evans, the box middle-right was a similar lot from Brian Carrick, I think, the single red figure was a freebie 'test shot' from Michael Mordant-Smith, while top right looks like a mix of purchases and Adrian Little loot, although I can't see the Replicants buys, or big pink bag anywhere?

 

Trevor Redkin will have been responsible for some of the small scale (bottom left, or centre?), Barney Brown brought something over during the show, and I think someone else (Steve Vickers or Graham Apperley?) brought over the bench and table (bottom centre), which still leaves several things to attribute, and several names missing, so apologies if I've not mentioned you here (eMail me!), and I'll add all the likely 'feeders' to the posts' thanks-list!

 

This is the plunder, broken down by subject-matter, which is how we will look at them again this year, I'd say it wasn't a vintage year for rarities, but there were still some very interesting things, and the posts all have something engaging in them!

 

You see, for instance, this was given to me by someone, and I've forgotten who, and while it could have gone in the Civilian-Sports post, it's so daft, with pre-walkers on a mobile see-saw, I thought it should go here as an example of the weirder-end of Hong Kong novelty tat! And having seen this year's HKTDC catalogue, you just don't get this genre of push-and-go polymer nonsense, any-more.

 

So whoever gave it to me (eMail!), it's much appreciated, for the sample of it's time, that it is, and as an enhancer of the babies-box 'master collection', mentioned in a Sandown Park post the other day! Literally priceless! And while the box needs work, the . . . err . . . Machine . . . Device . . . Siege-engine . . . is a minter!

 

Also outside the themes of the rest of the posts was this little goldmine of early Plastic Warriors, there were more, about 15 in total, but here's 9 out of the first 10 (missing No.2, which I think I already have), and overall I think I'm only missing about two or three issues now, all in the teens/early-twenties? It's also interesting to see how Peter's header graphic developed over the early issues.

 

I think there's ten posts to come, and it was technically the 40th birthday show, as the next issue will be the 40th anniversary mag', I think? But with a year lost to Covid ('22) and a couple of years of two-show experiments, I'm not 100% sure what show it actually was, and it didn't make a claim for itself, but maybe the 41st actual event?

 

All hats raised to Brian, Paul, Peter and others no longer here, for putting it on, every year, a shout-out to Steve Weston for helping find the new venue (so 'new' we've all been meeting there for about 14 years now?) along with a self-administered pat-on-the-back, to all those who've helped with tables and/or chairs over the years, our best show ever, every year!

News, Views Etc . . . PW Feedback

So, 4am here, and I've run out of puff, sorting the plunder pile! Yeah, I had a snooze earlier! There were three new Plastic Warrior Special Publications launched at the show this year, and the embargo has been lifted on them being announced, so they are:

A brief look at VP, not much added since the last issue, but all now in full colour for the first time, which with the sister volume . . .

. . . on UNA, means all five (Kentoys, Speedwell, Trojan) of the problematic Britains/Timpo-copy Khaki Infantry issuers have now been updated and colourised, I think? 

While this overview of Poplar Plastics, and it's relationship with Thomas, is also an update of a past title, with much more added, and again, in colour for the first time. They areare available separately for varying prices, or all three are in a bundle for £15:00, but I don't know how long that offer will last, before they revert to individual list items, or one of them runs out, so get your order in now!

 

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Peter Cole and his label Replicants had a 40th Anniversary (of Plastic Warrior magazine) figure, and four pairs of English civil War cavalry on his tables.

 

In a departure for Replicants, there is a new horse with separate base a' la Britains/Timpo, and the 40th Anniversary figure is of a spy, saboteur or 5th columnist, with headphones, using a morse-sender/receiver, in a suitcase. Whether this is a metaphor for PW's revelations on the secrets of plastic toy soldier production over the years, I didn't ask, but it seems apt! He may, of course, just be getting the football results?

 

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Graham Apperley reminded me he has a Blog now, which I had read on Brian Carrick's pages, but forgot to action, so this is the URL:

 

https://talesfromthetoyroom.blogspot.com/

 

Away from the show, Tom also has a new blog:

 

https://tomertonvillage.blogspot.com/

 

and sent me a link to an interesting 3D print source for civil/railway figures:

 

https://www.smartmodels.org/

 

And I'm hoping to get commenter John's Blog-link shortly. 

 

10-06-25 Done - https://toysoldiersblog.wordpress.com/

 

It's nice to see a resurgence in Blogging, especially in our field.

 

It was a fantastic show as always, and credit is due to Paul, Peter and Brian for putting it on, I don't know when I'll get the plunder posts out as there's a ton of stuff in the queue before it, even if I get stuck back-in, which I'm not sure I'm ready to, but it'll all be here in the end!

F is for Follow-up - Dippy Dino' Mags

We've had fair few overview posts on these kids magazines over the years, and they are worth keeping an eye out for, because they often have useful stuff on them as part of the 'freebie' element, which is not really a freebie when you see the price of the magazine, which varies from two or three-quid for the simpler infant ones to five pounds or more for the more substantial ones such as these, although 'substantial' is a moot point, when you would learn more from two pages of World of Wonder or Look & Learn, that you get from all the info-panels in one of these.

 

These look familiar, but last time there were six & six, this time we get a pair of sevens, and having purchased a sample, I shelfied a second which serves to illustrate that the dinosaur models come in other colours.

 

The Parasaurolophus, solid and skeletal! Each of the fleshed models has a stripped version, although the anatomical correctness is probably something which would give a palaeontologist apoplexy! As last time, the 'living' dinosaurs are PVC, the bones a rigid polyethylene.

 

A few weeks later I spotted this issue, with twelve dinosaur skeletons, and a quick look at the Parasaurolophus (bottom left corner) reveals they are all new sculpts, I can't see much play value in these - and there are many of them - but I'm not six, or twelve, so what do I know? However, it seems to me they would make excellent additions to Fantasy war gaming/role-playing skeleton armies, which is one reason why I post them from time to time!

 

We looked at the 'chomper' before, years ago, and, as then, it went off to charity. These cover offers do tend to come around several times, as we found with the Dr. Who Adventures mag's before they disappeared, and I haven't seen this for a few weeks so it too, may have gone now, the 'churn' with modern kids mags is far greater than it seemed to be in my childhood.

 

The most recent one I've found, which was a while ago now, had three medium-sized vinyl types, and a pointless plastic box with a button that went straight in the recycling bin!

 

I think I've mentioned before - some supermarkets (and libraries?) now have collection bins for these carded giveaways, so if the kids show no interest, or are so young they're only being read the contents, the toys can be passed on to charity. And, there are lots of others we haven't looked at, cartoon puppies and kittens, farm and zoo, doll type stuff, Thomas, Paw Patrol &etc.

 

But the animals are perfectly reasonable, and, as I've mentioned before, when I sit down to make more sense of the many tubs and boxes of these, and all the loose ones, I'm sure we'll discover the monochrome chaps will be found to have decorated versions, under other branding, probably in a more dense material? As far as I know, these are all issued by Kennedy Enterprises.

E is for Ephemera - Plastic Warrior Show 2024

I really shouldn't be blogging right now, far too much going on in real life, of far more importances, or worry! And I will apologise to Jon Attwood now for putting the remaining railway figure posts on hold, when we were quite near the end, equally I've got to put Peter and Chris's donation-plunder posts on hold too (although I have taken the images, they aren't sorted/cropped/collaged yet), and the show reports might be a month or two away right now (I haven't even started shooting the thematic stuff), but I will pick at low hanging-fruit when I get the chance/time, and this is a few bits from the show, which have been shot, of a more ephemeral nature!

 

I picked-up a few pieces of ephemera at the show, in the 'paper' rather than 'semi-lost' meaning of the word! With three new 'special publications' from the show's organisers, Plastic Warrior, a useful guide to Leyla farm models, covering both the hard and soft plastic, painted and unpainted with packaging and other bits, and another set of the card figures, I know I've posted - but can't now find - before.

 

The important detail of the last one being, that on the previous occasion, I think I showed them without a maker, as they had already gone-off to storage, this time I can tell you they are by, and called - Kardsmen by Mackenzie, that is John Mackenzie Models Ltd., of London, and dated to 1979.

Now, last time it was two ceremonial sets, if memory serves, and in storage from a fair-while ago, I think I may have two or three more sets which came from the second-hand booksellers' in Wantage, which were also ceremonial subjects (and may, or may not be/include duplicates of those seen here last time?), but these are clearly more belligerent in depiction, being the battle of Culloden, and on the reverse of the card is a hint at a more esoteric output;

• Nelson & Trafalgar
• The Royal Family
• Willian Shaspeear
• Black Watch Pipe Band (seen here?)
• King Henry VIII
• Queen's Guards (see here?)
• Royal Marine Band (possibly in storage?)
• Guards Band (seen here?)
• Yeoman Warders (possibly in storage?)

Which is quite a touristy/museum gift-shop type listing, I think you'll agree? As I say, I can't find the previous mention, which I think was a show report, possibly Sandown, or the London show, but when I find them, probably while looking for something else, I'll tag them to join these. The plastic bases always seem to be the same bright mid-green.

So, to the three specials, they are quite different from each other, being a technical treatise on the vagaries of engraving moulds and cutting detail into the tool halves and such-like (specifically, working 'in reverse' on the tools, not the masters), a more conversational piece on the early figurative Herald artwork and artists, both slim volumes, and a more substantial run through the Britains catalogues from 1965 to 1971, with reminisces of the author's thoughts at the time, and opinions now!

 

All penned by Peter Cole, with Chris Hawkins co-authoring the work on engraving, and both Barney Brown and John Rafferty helping with the artwork volume. While two are Britains specific, the third, technical work, is a wider look at how certain things might have been done to various early British-made figures.

They are available separately or as a package from Plastic Warrior (details below), and all proceeds will go to putting-on the next show (as I am reliably informed "I suppose we'll have to do another next year" due to the success of this year's!), because, let's face it, the subscription to the quarterly mag' is pretty-much 'at cost' given the prices of printing and post these days, so dig-deep, to support the hobby.

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Finally less ephemeral, yet more so, and possibly needing a new entry/folder in whatever information storage and retrieval system you possess, if you haven't already done so from the back pages of Philip Dean's book on Wend-Al, is this, from when they wound-up the aluminium production and took to flocking in a big way, a Timpo ape with ball (as supplied by Prindus (Prison Industries) ?), beautifully flocked by a flocking flocker (well, you can't resist the opportunity when it arises!) and in Wendan packaging - presumably; Wend Animals as opposed to Wend Aluminium?

T is for Two - Freebies!

Except at £4, 5, or 6.99, these modern kid's periodicals aren't exactly cheap, so whatever they Sellotape to the cover is not entirely 'free', but it brings down the unit cost, and none more so than this rather generic mag' I found back in November - Everything Jungle!

Two stories and forty-four stickers, sort of explains why we are going extinct, doesn't it? Sort of explains why we aren't rioting in the streets over the 300,000+ excess deaths of our loved-ones in the last four years, why we aren't protesting outside No.10 about the closure of 700 libraries? When you compare Look & Learn, World of Wonder or Tell Me Why to what kids get given these days, it rather explains everything.

 

But let's not worry about that boring real-life stuff, we've got free toys! I'm not sure if you'd call the upper cat a Leotah, or a Cheepard, but comparison with the other big cats will eventually clear up that attempt at a lame joke, by forcing it into one bag or the other, and for either cat it's quite well decorated for a Chinese generic.

 

As is the tiger, 90% of all tigers ever, having being pretty poor in the decoration department, over the years (and I include all generations/materials of Britains in that damming statement), obviously Schleich/Papo it 'aint, but better than most, it is. A reasonable [baby - if they are in-scale] elephant makes up the trio.

But then they gave us these as well, Iwako style/rip-off, plug-together erasers, two parrots, and - more amazingly - two designs, bargain! Kennedy Enterprises go in the Tag list and everyone is happy . . . aren't they?

T is for Thunderbirds Are Gone!

In fact they went just over a year after they started, I'm referring to Thunderbirds Are Go, a magazine which became, quite quickly, a subscription 'partwork', but which failed at the first hurdle - lasting a year!

Blogged by Moonbase at the time, so I held-off on my own purchases, but I'd got in at the start and predicted in a comment over there that it would peter-out after a while, with lower-value gifts and/or Thunderbirds-stickered (or printed) generic novelties, which is pretty much what happened, with a secret-code message booklet, Parker's 'cockney phrase book' "Shall I do the Berkeley, Mairy Pop'uns?!" or a tuppence-worth of vac-form mask, of the Hood's face!

 

But the early issues ran through the vessels in a '1:no constant scale' size model, I think there was a larger T4, but I missed it, and it'll turn-up loose at some point, if there was, I'm absolutely sure about that!

 

Probably the nicest was the T5, Space Station for onanists, which came as a kit of pre-coloured parts with a small sticker-sheet and therefore had a lot of inbuilt value-for-money, easy to build, it would be useful for all that micro-space wargaming some indulge in? "That's not a moon, it's a pocket-money trap!"

The flying Stalwart! Based on the TV reboot, the vehicles aren't quite as bad as the execrable movie, but nevertheless, they ain't the originals either, so not sad to see them die, a story which was told at the time over on Down The Tubes;

 

https://downthetubes.net/dc-thomson-cancels-thunderbirds-are-go-magazine/
 

What I managed by way of a collection, the T1 and T3 are relatively unchanged so why fuck-about with T2, which was everybody's favourite? Except for the big girl's blouses, who liked FAB1! I don't know if there was a FAB1 in the . . . 14 (?) issues!

D is for Dino-Mag - 3 of 3

For those who don't like dinosaurs here, you will be pleased to learn that's it for these, but - no doubt - gutted to learn the next post will be on the same subject!

Another issue of Andy's Amazing Adventures (not!), with a decent head-count of dinosaur models, this time two bigger and four medium-sized, including metallic polymer being used for both the larger models. The Kerthunkersaur's are not the same species, but are similar sculpts.

 

While I've suggested some may have commercial origins, re. tooling, others may be copied from more commercial makes, like Scleich or Papo, I'm not familiar-enough with them to recognise them in the same way I might instantly recognise Airfix or Britains toy-soldier knock-offs, and they will be much reduced in size?

More paint and a new colour, also the first pterosaur with any realism, I had him on a piece of cotton, I've touched-up, out of the picture! As well as being painted, and one of the larger models so far seen by me, the sauropod is also articulated with moving limbs and head/neck for added play value.

 

This, also a larger model, came in a mixed lot from charity or one of the Blog's donators, however, the black-dot eye says 'probably from this magazine', and clearly I've missed more than I've found, but then I often see them in the Post Office and just think "No, you don't need them, wait for something interesting . . . ".

 

. . . which is why this was the most recent actual purchase of this mag', because paint-your-own, and PYO dinosaurs, specifically, have been another common thread here at Small Scale World, over the years.

 

This one not only had two nice models, but a couple of unusual PVA paints, in both the 'International Emergency' orange and the purple! In fact, the two greens and the muted mustard-yellow aren't the normal colours you'd expect with this sort of freebie . . . so keep your eye out for Andy's crap magazine with occasionally useful cover-premiums!