T is for Toy Fair 2020 Reports - Tactic - 15 Minutes to Self Destruct

I mentioned that one of the items I shot at the toy fair had made it into more general coverage, and this be the fella'; 15 Minutes to Self Destruct from Tactic Games.

The hook as far as we are concerned is the four individually-sculpted figurines for the playing counters, each about 28/30mm-compatable, and they would paint-up well as the futuristic pajama-wearing crew of any space-fleet of your choice! Each is a different coloured plastic and are paired; two male and two female figures, so no charges of sexism possible!

I can see two problems with this game; 1 - if each player takes the five switches to his left after the start point-leaving switch, in a snake sweep, they should all (bar Yellow) be able to clear them very quickly, in sequence, with Red or Purple going to Yellow's aid if they finish their 'sector' first.

2 - If the cards/app/dice won't allow such a simple system, the onus would be on all players to short-count, or over-count to land on a switch needing turning-off, and - because it's a game reliant on teamwork, against the clock - the other three to turn a blind eye?

I stress that that's guesswork from studying these three images, but a game designed to be played in less than fifteen-minutes may be open to cheat-hacks? Perhaps if anyone does play it - they could put me right and explain it to the rest of us! There's also the problem that it needs an 'App' to be downloaded, which has shades of all those old 1980's cassette-tape and 1990's VHS-video games, even some 2000's DVD games, all of which seem to pile-up in Charity-shops like weird driftwood . . . alongside 12" Gajagoogoo singles!

Really - it's all about the figures! Red and Blue have their minds on the job, Yellow and Purple seem to have stopped panicking about the self-destruct and decided to celebrate imminent obliteration with a dance!

H is for Heroes in Half-shells

Back in the late 1980's when these guys first picked-up momentum (and kick-started the modern graphic-novel moment (in the English language that is; the Europeans were - of course - way ahead of the Anglo Saxons on that one . . . bigoted Brexit idiots!), I'd just got out of the army and was living in Aldershot where one of those combined head-shop/t-shirt/punk-badge/comic kiosks had both the US TMNT editions and the self-censored TMHT version . . . our kids weren't to be influenced by Ninjas apparently, they had to have 'Heroes' . . . go figure!

Carded Leonardo and Michelangelo, the figures are about56/60mm, but as they represent cartoon anthropomorphic turtle Ninja warrior monks who live in a sewer and allow themselves to be trained by a giant rat, I'm not sure that their being a few millimeters taller or shorter than your favorite figure-size is much to worry about!

I picked them up in a non-chain clearance/pound shop in Aldershot the other week, three of five, the missing figures being Raphael and a 'Foot Soldier'. And this gets Finland in the tag-list again!

Donatello in his blister and a line-up of the three, I've been back to see if I could get the others, but it's clear I got the last three of an end-of-line thing! Still - three-quid for the trio? I bet Forbidden Planet had them at  +/- a fiver-each whenever they were 'high street' retail stock!

The cards that came with them made no sense; nor did the all-languages/no language graphical instruction sheet! There seems to be an element of having to give your figure away if you lose at a round of 'Top Trumps': madness! There's a video on-line that might make it clearer. . . no, I haven't and I won't be, I'm a collector, not a thrower-away of good figures on the turn of a card!

These are nice sculpts, well painted, in a tactile material, if you see some, get them, put them on the shelf next to your JIM Napoleonic's, Timpo swoppet 'Great Helms', Marx beach babes and Cherilea Mexican bandit, they all represent the same thing - Childhood.

W is for Wittrock, H Wittrock

Another contribution from our reader/follower in the snowy North, and before I get on to the W of H Wittrock A/S, the company who produced the X-300 below, the first image is of a new and interesting version of the X-100 Scout.

Having two forward wheels and no tail wheels, it also has no window voids, due to the most surprising feature, a second skin or liner in a flecked grayish plastic which runs the whole length of the fuselage, fitting snugly in the nose and tail. I can only assume this was to reinforce the whole model and keep breakages to a minimum, lowering the amount of negative feedback at the time?

Three views of the box for a Finnish produced X-300, the Finnish title is Avarus Raketti, while the Rymdraket is the Swedish version of the translation for 'Space Cruiser, I suspect actually they both translate back as 'Space Rocket'? The same ship also sold in Denmark as Rumskib.

Another box in a brighter yellow graphic, Telex was the brand, but the contributor states that Wittrock were the actual maker. The shorter, blunter profile of the lower tail fin is a deliberate feature of these and given the damage the Pyro/Tudor*Rose ones get suggests this was a good move!

Another major difference between the Pyro one and this Scandinavian beast is the long probe coming off the front canopy...well; if you've taken the breakage-susceptible bits of the back - why not add one to the front!!

M is for More Space Stuff!

This image was sent in by a reader/follower from Finland, who wishes to remain anonymous, however many thanks to him for doing so as there are two bits of real interest here...

First is the reversed colourway for the Space Hawk/Spaceship from Pyro/Poplar, which rather confirms my suspicion that the 'Tudor Rose' one below is actually another Poplar moulding. I was told it was Tudor Rose and the 'Made in England' rather throws you...but the Welsh (in the 50's) weren't as bothered by their status as some are now, and 'England' would get exports more recognition than 'Wales'?

Of more interest in the photograph are the four X-100 Space Scouts at the back, these are in a semi-transparent/marbled plastic, and in conversation with the guy who supplied the photo, the thought is they are local production. If not Finnish, then Scandinavian at least...Now, the Ajax/Beton/Everybody else mounted figures from the very early days of plastic, were carried/produced in Europe by an unknown French company, Airfix, Remsa and, in Denmark, by Riesler...could Riesler have produced these four?

The other two are a silver X-200 Space Ranger like the red one below [this is a pyro original] and an Atomic Space Ship (with a damaged nose), [marked] Tudor Rose.