H is for Have Screwdriver, Will Travel, Interstellar!

This is all courtesy of Peter Evans, with the carded set coming last year around Christmastime, and the figure being in the latest donation, which I picked-up the other day!

 

Apropos the construction sets we saw in the shelfies from Brian the other day, and credited to a Huan Le Play of china, it's sub-branded, on the reverse, to 'Toys' and imported by Yelsa of Luton?

 

It's the figure we're interested here at the Command Centre, the shuttle's a bit naff, and he's a fully round, slightly juvenile sculpt, but, a useful, and cheerful looking, addition to the pile!

 

However, this almost identical chap has finer detail and a better finish, both in paint and overall sculpt (although the first guy's star-spangled visor is pretty neat!), so the suspicion has to be that the Huan Le set is a knock-off of whatever toy the second geezer came from? Cheers Peter!

S is for a Surfeit of BJ's

Well, it's been going begging since they first appeared around 2015, and as they are now widespread in convenience store/corner shops and a lot of petrol/service stations/garages, I'm sure more puerile title puns will be forthcoming! These are mostly from Peter Evans, I think, although I have picked-up a few myself, and there may be some un-posted mini's somewhere, I definitely bought, back last autumn?

 

Larger six/seven-inch models.

 

Smaller four/five-inch models. 

 

Jurrassic park knock-off graphics.

I haven't looked too closely at this, but I think it's both a skeleton and a skin which clips over it for a fuller model?

 

All this stuff is out there now if you like dinosaurs. There's a lot more Dino-stuff to come in Rack Toy Month, and with duplicates of both these and previously seen ones, it's getting a bit crowded in their corner of the storage unit, so some Charity Shop donating and de-bagging/carding to come!

 

Added an hour or two later - I knew these had to be somewhere! Bought in three different shops/garages earlier this year, the sculpts are all from the same tool-set, but with differences between the coloured set and the white set, and another sculpt in the magic-sand set, we could be looking at a cavity-count of 2 or more, and they may be the same mini's issued by those Andy's Adventures magazines?

RTM is for Red Deer's Toy Merchandise!

Bit of eye candy for the lovers of low-brow, low shelf kaka from the former colonies of the Far East, and these are out there now, with Peter Evans having provided some, while I found the others locally. We've seen Red Deer before, but these are further branded, or ascribed to an OTL of Leeds . . . and Poland?!

 

Hing Fat Japanese Infantry clones (and that's funny in itself!), in pink, with a basic, mostly plastic pull-back-and-go aeroplane in another scale, along with the de rigueur flag & stand, it's a real throwback to the rack-toys of yesteryear!

 

Spellcheck says "Using many exclamation marks might seem excessive (in this case: 3 exclamation marks for a text that’s 577 characters long)" . . . Have they not seen my Blog before?!!!! It's august, it's Rack Toy Month, lighten-up, you robotic retard!

 

Nth-generation copies of Matchbox's venerable (1975?) 8th Army sculpts, in bright blue plastic with a yellow fighter!

 

Vaguely German, that's RTM off to a good start! With exclamation marks!

 

"Using many exclamation marks might seem excessive (in this case: 11 exclamation marks for a text that’s 1030 characters long)"

O is for Odd Ossuary

OK, so to the last post on the Gogo Crazy Bones from Magic Box which have been in Picasa for too long (as have lots of other things, and they're still there!), not least because they have limited pull for most Loyal Readers, beyond this box-ticking exercise!

 

So, I bought a final big lot which came with a Gogo's tin, I didn't shoot these as to a certain extent they were much of a muchness, both with the ones in the original post, and the first few of this sequence, But note, in answer to my comment in the preceding Crazy Bones post, here we have a decent number of dark greens in both opaque and transparent. Likewise with the blues and a bunch of candy-mice and bubblegum pinks.

 

There were also a lot of the glass-clear ones, with more transparent in the reds and oranges, but it was the odds which proved more interesting and are looked at below, by visible marking, the reason being, I didn't look so closely at the original post's figures/bones;

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2017/10/c-is-for-crazy-bones.html

 

. . . but suspect a few of the undecorated ones in that lot were from the groups below. It should be noted that the link in that original post also talks of Coca-Cola premiums somewhere, but below are various issues/tranches of their offerings.

 

Apparently issued by Imperial, who pops-up here, regularly retailing novelty tat, and things which look like other people's things, those non-Brabo bendies, for instance, and here they have gone to Israel of all places, and found a Laor Toys, to make several tranches of their Jojo's, over three or more years in the mid-nineties.

 

A whole set of T-Shirts?

 

I assume Tim Foot is the 'designer', however, I don't know the significance of 'Haxey', but will put it separately in the Tag list for those who do! And these seem to predate Gogo's by a year at least, however the collector's wiki, seems to have various producers of these 'bones', before Magic Box blew the gaff wide open?

 

Metallics, China, not Israel, and not of the same quality as the later Magic Box ones; quickly worn away with play, likely a high shine spray, rather than a genuine heat-coating or dip-plating?

 

Don't know?

 

So, we have a kid's craze in the mid-1990's, major player is Magic Box, an unknown Spanish company who will become a global giant off the back of them, who call their product Gogo's Crazy Bones, and which are designed to be used like Roman or pre-Roman knuckles, in a variety of games, rules for which were included in the blind-bags they were purchased in.

 

Flat colours, Metaflek, clear, semi-transparent, metallised, decorated and undecorated, possibly used as premiums by Coke-cola, Hubba-Bubba and others, rival brands, unique sets per. Country, special issues for smaller organisations (UK's FIFA World Cup team), convention and swap-meet exclusives (usually an existing moulding in a special finish), there must be several thousand to find, I've picked up a couple of hundred or so now, and that's too many!

 

A couple of useful links for those who are really interested;

 

Fandom

https://crazybonespedia.fandom.com/wiki/Crazy_Bones_Pedia-Wiki

 

Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gogo%27s_Crazy_Bones

D is for Donation - Chris - Military

Some lovely figures here, and a pair that have driven a follow-up, which will appear out of the current sequence, between this post and the last of the Gogo Crazy Bones posts. I seem to be in an odd rhythm at the moment of blank days and multiple post days, it's pure coincidence really, and it means you don't have to return here daily, but if/when you do, there may be a few posts to catch-up on!

 

A right old mix here, and because we've just seen the Marx 45mm link (in the previous post), here's two more of the possibly candy-holder vehicle/vessel plug-in/twist-in crew, and there's a strange deform behind them who may be a known character, but not known to me!

 

Chris filters out the rack-toy commonality, but sends the interesting ones, and here it's the two metallic olive-drab Airfix American Infantry piracies to the right, the Toy Story / Tim Mee clone to the left, another of the Timpo officer knock-off, and one of the large pound store ones from a few years ago.

 

These two 25mm Marx Miniature Masterpieces had not anticipated the thoroughness with which Royal Fail and/or Parcel Farce would explore their weaknesses and exploit the hell out of them! Sigh! But they were the only casualties this time, and it's bound to happen occasionally, with old figures.

 

A brilliant find, not only is it another WWI American clone from Airfix, not only is it another complete bubble-bottle handle/blower, but it's a new colour, and a new pose, and not just any pose but a prone pose, who, if you save him, after the bubbles end, by separating him (and his base) from the stalk, is now firing at 'planes.

 

And there's a lot of significance to this find. The first two finds (both by me) were in red plastic, if we now have green, we can assume maybe blue, yellow, even/or black? Certainly some other colours, second; we now have three poses, including a prone, so will most of the set be found? Will the wire-party be found as two separate figures?

 

Now if I've ended up with three, after 40-odd years (previous find was over ten years ago), how many centuries will be needed to get a full, or more informative sample?! The hope being that somebody, somewhere, made a decent hash of collecting a load at the time, and that they may turn-up poorly described on feeBay, or undescribed but included in a larger job-lot at a local auction house?

 

Other possibilities which become stronger with this find are that A) Airfix (or General Mills/Heller) might have licensed the figures, or even loaned the old cavities? B) They might be by Dulcop, who by the 1980's had moved out of figures* proper, and into bubble-bottles, in which field they are still globally known. With both the neighbours (Barravelli and Montaplex) also known for producing daft, upright/foot versions of Airfix prone/mounted figures, there is a Mediterranean thread running through the practice?

 

*The Dulcop figures carried by the - then - new, and growing, Plastic Warrior magazine, back in the late 1980's, were specially commissioned by them, and, from the plastic colours, consisted of half old-stock from the warehouse, and half new-runs, for the magazine. 

 

LJN GI's, another nice find, and there will be a follow-up shortly, Chris says the chap on the left is complete, as per the factory, but the chap on the right might not have the correct head, a problem with all these Hong Kong originating figures.

 

Again, I wondered if the poses might be taken from Cofalux or similar (see earlier post), but more on that in the follow-up.

 

These are brilliant too! In bright green they are sometimes (late issues?) the figures from the Lucky/Helen of Toy 'Woods Edge' or 'Tank Trap' comic-offer games, fighting the Ex-Giant Germans, in the mid-greens a common rack-toy figure, and I have a few in yellow/mustard, but I've never seen them in orange, or this blue, and I've never seen them on the runner, or in such a dark green, so quite the find! Copies of the Marx and Blue Box 25mm figures.

 

We saw the modern ones from Corgi Classics here;

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2010/08/t-is-for-tactical-strike-by-corgi.html

 

Right-back at the start of the Blog, but I had no idea there were WWII sets, and the 8th Army chap here, with a side-hat, is more LRDG/SAS than regular infantry, while the German looks to be an older man, possibly in glasses or with a monocle, and maybe Volkssturm?

 

More grist to the mill; I have meant to sort these 1st version Airfix clones out several times, and it's another project for the But is it Giant page (no, they are not Giant!), but it won't be for a while. These are one of the lesser versions I think, with the smooth base undersides.

 

Many thanks to Chris Smith for some very interesting figures. 

D is for Donation - Peter - Military

So, to the 'meat and two veg' of a toy soldier Blog (really I like to think we are a ' toy soldier, model figure and novelty' Blog!), with the chaps (and occasionally, chapesses) in Khaki, and it's always a mix of rack-toy rusk and quality seed!

 

A trio of odd figures, with what looks to be a Cofalu/x 60mm-copy to the left, solid head, rather than the plug-in of the original, a kit figure GI, Monogram or Revell? and a chunky Matchbox clone.

 

Originally Ackerman in the UK, these have now been seen in various configurations, and associated with various brands, and as generics, in two sizes, we looked at them here;

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2019/08/f-is-for-follow-up-to-some-stuff-we.html

 

with a link in that post to an earlier one, but more variants have come in, including other paint-ways, so a further sort-out and more definitive post will happen one day! It's the figure set which also, sometimes, comes with those big B/O tanks.

 

Miller's grist, the grayer ones might be Boley or similar, the greens very generic, and the reds very modern, and probably only ID'able from shots of carded or bagged sets shelfied, or downloaded from evilBay/Amazon etc.

 

A common set of modern (age and depiction) sculpts, many variants exist, and they will be looked at in detail another day, we have had the odd poke at them, already!

 

MPC clones, several variations of these, both from domestic US makers, and Hong Kong pirates, I tend keep two of each marking/colour variation, and put the rest in the swaps pile, but finding the right accessories is the hard bit!

 

Again, lots of variety in these Matchbox clones, not all ID'd yet.

 

More modern stuff and some old HO/OO Airfix bits.

 

The five same-colour figures are Fishel's unique mouldings, possibly worked off, or contributing to, their own US Police/SWAT set, and I think the brighter green chap is theirs too, but both the prone figures are unmarked. He looks a bit Speznaz, Afghanistan

 

Three generations of Hong Kong/China piracy; with the 1950/60's Tim-Mee in front, a 1970/80's Airfix clone to the right, and a modern (1990-2000's) to the left. A Blue Box GI with bayonet fitted for Jap-bashing, and a very good version of the Britains Swoppet clones, usually poor quality with the mortar bomb looking more like a kitchen implement or sex-toy, here it's well moulded, and the figure has a more substantial base . . . new to collection, I think?

 

Airfix original (damaged) and Hong Kong clones, almost certainly one of two apparent versions from Rado Industries (Ri-Toys).

 

Three tatty and paint-stripped Lone Star paratroops, could be useful spares or a future painting project? That peculiar mix of WWII battle-dress and 1950's 'futuristic' EM-2 Bullpup rifle, with overdramatic officer!

 

These are nice, probably from a big-box Chinese-manufactured play-set, and similar to some parachute novelty figures around in the last few years,. They're big at around 60mm, the chap in the right is more Russian in styling. Slava Ukraine!

 

Marx. Hard polystyrene plastic, 45mm, not the first found, but same pose . . . So, must be a Swansea thing? Possibly an accessory for a vessel or vehicle set? And might be related to the yellow one here;

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2012/07/l-is-for-late-thanks-to-blogger.html

 

Mostly Shing Hing (S.H. marked), with a comparison shot of the modern sculpt above, and an older Airfix figure in the upper/first shot.

 

 

Two mixes of modern/current production from various sources, copies of copies, of copies, in the end they get so poor they look more like Fantasy skeletal figures (back row, yellowish) and within set, often reference more than one other donor set! But all valid, and one-of-each, eagerly sought - 'for the record'!

So many thanks to Peter for finding some of them, and he's already eMailed me, with news of more finds.

C is for Charity's Colourful Carrion

This was a smaller purchase, around the same time as the others we've seen, i.e., more years ago than I care to remember, or have actually remembered! Nothing new with these, but the last post is interesting . . . ish!

 

Anodised metallics, with a transparent blue monkey on the left, it's actually one of the more realistic Crazy Bones so far, with the yellow tiger/cat (2nd post) a close, but demented, second, then I think we have a butterfly, a Hitler Dog (it's just the flash!), another animal and two pirate skulls.

 

Pastels and purples! See; not really a Hitler Dog!

 

Everything else Gogo! I quite like the ghost, bottom-right. Overall there haven't been many dark green ones from Magic Box, have there? The last post in this sequence will add further to the story, then we may have a more rambling post on all these blind-bag things, then there's more from Brian and some larger ones, before maybe some more Kinder and Lego?