W is for Well, They're Not Plastic!

The last of the Sandown Park plunder from November, and I thought I was buying some of either of the two Marx issues, of the slightly larger than the Miniature Masterpiece Noah's Ark set's, plastic animals, and it wasn't until I got them home that I realised they were Line Mar slush-cast, or some kind of press-moulded alloy, metal animals from Marx's partner-firm in Japan!

 

The Hippo's box is a bit tatty!

 

I've probably got some of these, in the 'unknown' piles!

 

The kangaroo is no jumper!

 

These are really lovely for what they were, probably sixpenny / five or dime novelties. Each is wrapped in a little piece of rough tissue-paper, and the boxes are content-specific, which is nice, in something so ephemeral. Now to find the rest . . . and another kangaroo!

F is for Feelin' Feline!

An obvious title, I'm surprised I haven't used before now! We actually had a roundup of cat stuff not that long ago, and while half the stuff in this post is recent, some of it was found elsewhere in the unused archive!

A largish resin lump I picked-up at a charity shop back in '22, made by Sheratt & Simpson, I guess it's from one of those overpriced series of such stuff in jeweller's windows? But it's a reasonable sculpt, and when £20-something becomes 50p or similar, I ponce . . . like a cat!

Boysy-boy eyeing it with a modicum of suspicion! I still miss him every day, his weight on the end of the bed, his little complaints when he thought he ought to have a treat! But I miss both his Mum's too, and that's the burden of getting to this age, dealing with more and more death, in one's life.

Large Japanese blow-mould, marked on the other side with a three-leaved clover mark, and Japan in ink, and moulded on the body.

This is a modern set from Shing Hing, the people who brought a four-nation 'army man' tub to Smyths a few years ago. There's a lack of imagination in the decoration, but otherwise they are reasonable sculpts for a rack-toy type thing.

Three from Schliech, we looked at five back in October and I think two are duplicates, but the Egyptian-looking one is a definite paint variant, and the long-haired Persian is a new addition.

They are no better as cat's, than they were as dog's, who buys this shit?

Shelfied in Home Bargains.

Oh . . . I do! I actually grabbed these at Waterloo yesterday, a series of mini-adventures I could have done without - Travellers closing Charing Cross, football hooligans, and cancelled trains - led to my browsing the 'boutiques' on the new mezzanine, and I thought these were particularly stupid! The cord already hangs over the side of the vessel, how is a cat's tail going to make any difference, or improve things, one iota?

I found they preferred to sniff the fumes of sloe gin!

What? It's Christmas! 

T is for Thunderbirds' 2, 4, 6, FAB 1, and a Whole Bunch They Didn't Bother to Number . . . are GO!!

Funny story behind this one, the guy wanted (and I don't normally deal with the grubby stuff, but it's central to the story) 55-quid for this, a bit steep I thought, but I know this imported stuff commands a premium, so I thought "Fuck it, I'm playing catch-up with bushy the twig, I might as well?", and got sixty out, "Have you got a fiver?", I asked the dealer, at the start of the day . . . bear in mind, the dealer I was with, had a wad of fivers, and a bag of £1 and £2 coins, because he's prepared his float!

 

"Err, no" he says, so I asked him what we were going to do, and he half-heartedly muttered 'the wife' or something, and with no further words, exchanged a glance with her, and said "No". "Well, I'm not going to give you sixty?" says I, and he leaps back indignantly "I never asked you to!", "No" said I, "But that's the other logical solution?" To which he hummed an acceptance of that logic, and after a laboured silence, I said "Well, I'll leave it than, maybe later?" handed it back and walked away.

 

And I would have left it at that, indeed I went back past the stall a couple more times, gave it the once over, and studiously ignored the set, and would have left it. If you're setting yourself up as retailer for the day, no matter what your 'day job', you either go to the bank and get a wad of fivers and a bag of coins, or, if you don't do that many shows, save your one's, two's and five's in the two-to-four months between shows? It's common-sense as much as anything else.

 

However . . . on the other side of the hall, another chap had the exact-same contents of this set, in two window boxes, one with T2, T4, Pod 4 and - I think - Fab 1, the other having all the other vehicles, and the spare Pod 3, he wanted £60 or £65 for the first, and £40 or £45 for the second, I can't remember the exact amounts, but it was going to be over a hundred-quid for the pair, so in the end, I went back to the first stall, and I bought it after all, while he wasn't there, as it happens.

 

But, that was only half the story, as when I first spotted it, it had no price on, and I asked the lady (who would transpire to be the dealer's wife), how much it was, and she said she didn't know, but that 'he' was coming back, so I hung-on for a minute or two, then she said she didn't know what had happened to him, so I left it with her, assuming she would keep it behind until I returned.

 

The standard approach at shows, when someone shows interest in something, and the helper, for whatever reason, doesn't know what's going on. However, when I returned to the stall, it was back on display, for any Tom, Dick or Harry passing-by, to purchase, with it's newly added pink £55 label!

 

It takes the shine off the day, dealing with these fuckwits, you know? It's not rocket science, there are rules to the art of pretending to be a retailer for a day, and this stall literally failed all of them! Fackin' ell, G'want! An ironic cultural reference, as they went through a phase of wearing Thunderbirds Are Go T-shirts!

 

Anyway, I am now the pround'ish, owner, of a maybe cheaper than I thought it aught to be, Thunderbird Two from Bandai, with most of the more memorable pod-vehicles, to add to the already growing collection of micro-mini's we looked at here;

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2024/01/f-is-for-five-four-three-two-one.html

 

To which I've already added a vinyl tree-hanger, the dug-out 'Colourform' ones, a board-game foursome, and a couple more, in plunder-posts which didn't get the T-bird Tag!
 

 

Mole, Firefly and the Excavator, which should be red, and which I saw in an episode the other night, there's one of these 24-hour live streams on YouTube, which seems to be connected to the remastered Blu-ray, and I'm dipping into it from time to time, but you never know where in the loop you're going to drop-in, so you then have to fast-forward through a few, to get to where you were, after which the episode cursor stops progressing, all very confusing, but great-fun seeing them all again!

 

Fab 1, and the two blueys, the ray turns on the Transmitter Truck, and the grabs (I don't know this vehicle's name? Another Excavator?) are articulated, the only other interactive one is the Excavator above, where the bucket is clip-on and can be configured for travelling in the Pod, or as shown.

 

I'm minded, if I ever get the time, to scratch-build a few more to go with these, the last episode I watched was 'The Uninvited', about the mysterious pyramid of Khamandides, with the half-tracked 'Jeep', it would be fun to do that in this scale!

 

Three more, I don't know what the first one is, a laser-cutter - should it also be red? The second is one of two Recovery Vehicles, the other would need to be scratch-built, and it can be red or yellow? While I remember a trio of the Elevator Cars (which should also be red, or white with a red cab?) trying to save the huge (and rather silly) Firefly, I can't remember the whole story, and will catch up with it soon, hopefully, but I think they sort of succeeded?

 

Thunderbird Six . . . it's not a Pod-vehicle! My late father's Tiger Moth, which was an ex-WWII trainer, had a very similar paint-job, but blue, not red, and I wonder if the MOD-approved sellers painted them like this, to hide the military markings, prior-to-sale, but, like so many things (you realise, after they have gone), I never asked him?

One of the great continuity errors of Thunderbirds, which niggled me, even as a kid, was the fact that Thunderbird Four, was named thus, and got its own Pod, while none of the others got either a number or a dedicated Pod, I don't even know how many Pods there were, was it six? The two Pods in this set are only numbered on the front, they should be numbered at both ends, and the registering of the sticker here, leaves a lot to be desired!

News, Views Etc . . . Composition Page

Welp! I have finally published - with all faults - the composition page I started editing about fourteen or fifteen years ago! It was near-ready about ten or eleven years ago, and I sent off edits to a few people to proofread, and I must thank Paul Morehead of Plastic Warrior for being the only one to get back to me, with an edit (which I hope I've corrected in the current draft!), the other's know who they are, and have disappointed, but that's pink-monkeys for you; always disappointing when they can!

 

 

Brent - smaller version

After the above, was ready to go, the whole article disappeared, poof! Like some negative-reaction magic trick! And I never got it back, while Blogger/Google have yet to reply to my eMails of ten-odd years ago! Anyway, while I started again, I was rather disheartened by the whole business, and rather left it on the back-burner!

Luckily, I had the draft I'd sent out, and could get the images back off the dongles, although by the time I was about to publish, I'd reworked most of the second section, and that's now quite different, and probably not as good at it was first-time around, these things tend to flow better in the initial attempt? Or they do with me?

It's incredible! He has to have the same story, a better story or something similar scrapped off evilbay! Like the braggart in the playground, who won't be bested, yet always, only reacting!

https://projectswordtoys.blogspot.com/2025/11/sometimes-great-lotion.html

I mean, I'm not saying he made it up, but timing's everything, so no sympathy here! I lost a bigger, better, more erudite document, not five minutes ago . . . not! Little tosser.

Japanese composition Wild West

While I know I've lost some links, and I've since added most of the British makers here, in individual posts, but they're not linked to, on the new composition page yet, so there will be more editing, and there are a couple more to go up here, to finish-off what I have on early British composition. But I have checked the links there, and updated one, although, the STS Lineol link keeps defaulting to Kinder here, but I think that must be a 'me' or 'my machine' glitch, if it happens to you, 'copy' the link and go through Google.

 

Three lead and a bisque pilot, with variations of Timpo/Zang 'Timpolin' airmen

The page remains a guide only, and 'work in progress', with the 'Rest of World' maker's list particularly poor and bitty, so any help there will be gratefully received, but at least it is 'live' now, which is an advance on yesterday! Much shorter pages will appear at some point on ceramics and tin-plate, with polymers and size/scale/ratio/gauge, still some way off!

 

 

Unknown leopard - a plastic copy of a probably Lineol animal,

heralds the end of composition. 

 

I must also thank Adrian Little, who has let me shoot all sorts of interesting things, on his tables, over the years, not least a lot of the stuff on the Composition Page;

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/p/blog-page_25.html 

D is for Dinorasers

I'm sure we've had that title before, but I can't be arsed to think up something else! Not exactly a Rack Toy Month perennial, yet something we have returned to often enough, and probably during some RTM's, but it happens I've found four new (or newish?) Dinosaur eraser sets recently, and these is they . . .

 

This was the missing Iwako set, which we did eventually look at I think, but I can't remember if it was shelfies, sealed, a show-shot or the full enchilada, so I grabbed this one when I saw it a while back now (garden centre I think, early May?), so I'd know I had one!

 

We've seen the Pterodactyl, and the other four biggies in close up for sure, but this set (and another multi-animal set) also has the two smaller, single-piece Velociraptors, and a pair of Archaeopteryx (Archaeopteryx'es?) for a nine-model count.

Then, at the end of May, I found these Kiwi dinosaur pencil rubbers, and again I can't now remember where, but it was probably another garden centre, but might have been Home Bargains, the TKMaxx full-price but cheapo' off-shoot? They are straight copies of Iwako (with the exception of the green cartoony smallie, who's also a single piece moulding), but more obvious piracies for not following the colours of Iwako as other clones do, but making for a more interesting heard, when added to the existing Iwako/Hawkins ones!

 

The other day I found these in . . . yeap, a garden centre, but this time I know where! It was the big Longacres  one up at Bagshot, and they are familiar sculpts in a new packaging, this time branded to Deluxbase.

 

And one new colour - the red Spinosaur! Although the two greens are quite different too. We saw the Range/i-doodle set a while ago, but for comparison, you can see it's basically the same assortment. 'Back to school' season, can be a good time to look for these things!

K is for Kanhȗ's Kung-Fu Killers!

Picked these up the other day, more erasers! These Kanhȗ erasers though, are pretty good 54mm human figures, an excellent addition to the collection, and will make a fine foil to the larger Power Ranger capsule and cereal premium toys, we've looked at previously here.

 

Two per pack, so you can get them fighting from the off! Something seems to have been lost in translation with 'Yosoken' probably being Yoseikan budō, a form of combined martial art, and 'Shorinken' probably meaning Shuriken, or fighting stars, those two being on the fronts of the cards, I didn't pursue the exercise with the five on the back! Equally, with the seven black & white sketches not resembling the four figures, it could be a set in excess of 12 sculpts?

A is for Army Men, From America!

Actually there's all sorts in Brian's parcel, but we're starting with two absolutely classic 'Army Men', bagged rack-toy types! After which, it's quite a space/sci-fi themed bundle this time!

So these are they, a new'ish set of Matchbox GI copies, from Japan? And the MTC set Brian had previously sent us, and becasue the figure mix in this second sample was not so hot (four running guys), I open the other for a better look below, and will keep this as the 'mint bagged' sample.

 

But first, back to the Japanese firm, it has a US arm in California, but is, I would suggest, a sign of changing habits, globally, as America (and by association - Hasbro, Mattel and Tomy-Takara - the rest of us), wean themselves (ourselves) off Chinese product? Daiso, therefore, possibly being the van of more to come?

 

Strangely, scanning the card and shooting the figures close-up, then bring the two images together without a borderline, has produced a collage which is better than the shots of the whole item, which were troubled by reflections!

Isn't it ironic?!! The one figure, missing from the bag I opened, is in the other bag four times! One of each, with most taken from the bag Brian sent last time, they are, on one level, trash, but equally, are 'proper' TOY soldiers, and kids love this stuff, big enough to take to the beach (70mm) plus, and as valid in my collection as anything else!

 

A sample of the 'Army Women' from BMC, they are every bit as fun as they looked when first announced (here actually!) back in August 2019. What I like is that most of them are aping the old Tim Mee cold-war figure poses, but as women, nothing sexualised, just soldiers who are women, and these are the best colour to have - cheers Brian!

 

Three Mexican copies/reissues of the old Mark 60mm spacemen, I have a growing sample of these now, you may recall Peter sent a pink one . . . orange? I think he was orange, a while ago, and I do have some older ones too.

This is the whole line-up, I think this is an early guide from The Toy Soldier Company, although it's called a Toy Soldier Guide, and as I said, I have various others in both a darker metallic-blue and a paler metallic blue-grey, which all seem original, along with some grey reissues I think, all helmetless, but the helmet which came with the orange one is different to that issued with the grey ones anyway!

 

Brian also sent a nice sample of the MPC astronauts (one of each pose here, there were more), in red, white and blue (very patriotic!), which I needed, as I have the LB (for Lik Be, obviously!) copies, from late MPC sets in HO, with this colour way, along with those Nasta Industries copies in the same three colours, but otherwise had only the gold-orange-yellow ones from the XL5 boxed set.

 

Here's a quick comparison with the silver one Peter Evans sent the other day, and serves as a presage to a forthcoming article with a wider look at these figures, from various sources.

These are interesting, and I'd love to know more, if only so I can label the bag! They look like Pokémon, mostly after transformation, but are unmarked, so even if they are Pokémon, will be unlicensed, but I suspect either a rival product, or a total knock-off line, possibly from capsule dispensers?

While this is awesome! We've seen them before, Peter has sent me two lots over the years and I found a bunch myself, which have been covered here on several occasions, so I've left them in the bag for now, but I am looking for a flat-topped cake at some point, for a full parade! They are cake decorations and based on Britains 'Eyes Right', but scaled down, and quite exquisite, and there's 40-odd in the bag, so a major parade is calling.

However, I grabbed this shot off of that evilBay a while ago, and it shows little boxes that allow them to be used without a cake, by receiving the cake spikes. It's the only time I've ever seen them, so don't know if they are original accessories, or something an owner has fashioned from something else (and I have shots somewhere of them in cake decoration packs without the cubes), but it's worth looking out for a few.

 

You may recall Peter mounted some of his in pairs on old Timpo bases! I will need to scratch-build at least one bass drum, which has never turned-up and doesn't seem to have been made as part of the set?

Thanks again to Brian for all these, it's the extensions, connections and 'further's, which make these donations so useful, and as I say, we'll expand on the MPC spacemen in a day or two.