P is for Peter's Plunder - Highlights 1

As I mentioned the other day, I don't tend to post-credit when geldt has crossed palms, but first, I know who gave me the contents of the bag, and second, I know they were cheapies, so we'll look at the highlights!

 

A couple of robo-dino-bots, similar to the pair of gift shop dragons carried by several branding's a few years (couple of decades?) ago, but still around, with the same black undercoat, heavy silver over-brushing and red eyes!

There's a post on these coming soon'ish I think, touristy horses, I spent years waiting for riders to appear, but it seems there weren't any, despite the Western/American saddlery?

 

Three American natives from Jean, the prone one is one of the slightly harder to find poses, but they are as common as Airfix readymades, on the continent, so it's all a bit relative!

 

Very strange manga/anime things with slightly animalistic faces, pre-pubescent teen bodies, angels wings, and a look of mischief about them! Possibly Wild Vibes Zombaes Forever dolls (some Netflix thing), but not the 8cm articulated action figures Google reveals, rather 54/60mm PVC solids - an earlier/capsule-toy line?

 

A bit infant'y, and probably going-on to charity, but they are fun if you like all this 'deforms' stuff, and marked-up to K&M/Wild Republic, so - box ticked! And the horses are less cartoony and could prove useful for spare mounts?

 

Kinder's Disney Fairies, I tried to get them to perform for the camera, but the petals kept falling out, or the fairies fell over, so, well, you get the idea, a similar set of 'Flower Fairies' has been issued recently as well!
 

Space! The lenticular goldfish-bowl-face is a new [to the collection] colour, the orange guy is Safari, I think the green one might be Ben Ten (and was another one who didn't want to stand up!), while the silver guy is an MPC copy, and the other two are mini-action figures from Hasbro, one a Star Wars 'Clone War' figure, the other possibly a GI Joe or something?

 

Loving the quirkiness of these, semi-flat, polyethylene, 'monochromatic' dinosaurs, what's not to like? The bases have channels in them which suggest they may attach to something else, but similar channels have been seen in other figures over the years (game playing pieces, IHC firefighters), so there may be a technical reason behind it.

 

More Kinder, and another fail to get a better display shot, but they are from several Barbie series I think, and as spares/to-be-sorted are a useful addition to my smaller sample. Oddly, several of them have pink knickers! But it's probably not that odd to a child and I'm just channelling the inherited residues of Edwardian uptightedness in the matter?

 

More Kinder (or Phidal in the case of the little blonde) capsule-type stuff.

More space! Seven of the LB (for Lik Be, of course!) astronauts, in their soft polyethylene iteration, probably the best surviving of the small scale versions, and posed with the Combex pencil sharpener. I've since learned there is a carpet-wheel version of the novelty, marked only 'B - 5 2 0'.

D is for Dinosaurs, Lots & Lots of Dinosaurs!

And we arrive at the first post from Jon Attwood's latest and huge donation, which will be the last dinosaur post for a few days (already another one in the queue!), and because there are lots of animals to come in Jon's posts, I will try to alternate between donation and other posts for the next few days.

Because Dinosaurs are one of the unsung corners of the collection, which, apart from a few small scale and novelty types, have only really started accruing in the last 15 years, they all need a huge sorting and attributing session, likely to take a week or two, which won't happen for a while, and I can't pretend to be an expert on any of it, consequently I thought to do these as thematic shots, by way of an overview of what's out there, particularly of the Hong Kong / China variety, and to thank Jon properly for them by at least featuring them all here once, as while we will see them all again one day, they will be sorted into sets, by brand/maker . . . hopefully!

 

Here are me'fave's, the Dimetrodons, which, as I mentioned the other post ago, are not technically dinosaurs, but rather, to quote Wikipedia "a genus of non-mammalian synapsid that lived during the Cisuralian age of the Early Permian period, around 295–272 million years ago", in other words, among the first larger animals out of water, but not the first, and possibly warm-blodded?

 

Although there were also small ones, and two similar species - Edaphosaurus (large grey above), and Secodontosaurus are among the toys, which should be leathery, not scaled, but I just like them for reasons of childhood fancy and nostalgia! The pale gape-mouth/spotted pair which are a classic 'chinasaur', are actually dated 2001, but probably shot from old tools? the teeny-tiny one is marked Koka China which would seem to be a branding?

Triceratops, Styracosaurus and similar Ceratopsians, among other favourites from childhood, as there were quite a few different ones and they all looked suitably wacky, and of a mind to not be a carnivore's lunch, or not without a damaging fight! Always stand up to bullies! The blue one second from right is marked Chasmosaurus.

A couple of Protoceratops on the right and lots of Kerthunkersauruses, more formerly known as the Ankylosauria, I have always called them Kerthunkasaurs, because Ankee . . . ancky . . . Annekey . . . the real one is too hard to spell!

The bright green one looks like an infant or bath toy, could even be a pet toy, but no squeak, while the four small ones in the middle would look to be from the same maker, but two species, and have the look of erasers, but are polyethylene. The big Proto' with the red head is a lovely sculpt, well decorated, with a nod to modern birds such as the Pheasants? Or, yes, some monkey's arses!

 

Pterosaurs, when I was a little kid, there were really only two of these in all the books Pterodactyl (it's OK with this one, spellcheck gets it!), which all four of these are, and the dog-headed one with a parrots beak, now there are loads, but not many toys, and few really-good toys as they don't lend themselves to posing! But these are all quite good, compare with the various eraser Pterosaurs, which all look like comedy vampire-bats!

Stegosaurs, didn't we all have a soft spot for these, I'm sure half the reason we liked them was because they had a whole driveway of crazy-paving on their backs. You don't see much crazy-paving these days, but when I was young it was everywhere, the ultimate recycling of not so crazy paving!

 

The second largest (green with red plates) is marked SH, which I think is Shing Hing, still around, they did that four-nation tub of 'army-men' in Smyths a few years ago. While the dark one back-right, is called Tuojiangosaurus on his belly, but is using a classic Steggy' tool, the true Tuo' should have spikes or narrow, tapering plates?

 

Sauropods, due to their immense size, they are nearly always a compromise on scale/size, even from good, branded makers, and while the palaeontologists have classified loads of them, we tend to think of Dippy's, Brote's and the other one, and wasn't one banned, but has it come back again, and did two switch name or classification and, and, and, they are really big aren't they?

 

I like the biggest one (marked Apatosaurus) with the head turned on the horizontal. The two long ones are variations of the same tooling, and both also marked SH for Shing Hing.

 

Parasaurolophos, one of the duck-billed dinosaurs, again when I was a kid, the more normal duck-bills tended to be modelled, but now this one with its hollow trumpet is everywhere! And again the red-headed one is particularly smart-looking, while the one bottom-right, with a flap of connecting skin, clearly establishes himself as a different species/subspecies within the genus. he also looks related to the Silurian Sea-Monsters from Dr Who!

 

I couldn't remember what the bumpy-headed ones were called (like I ever knew!), but googling 'Grape headed dinosaur' gave an instant 'Pachycephalosaurus', and I think the various plate-heads are related carnivores, the double crest/crown one is Dilophosaurus, if Gooogle is to be believed!

 

It's confirmed by the bellies of the large green one (Toy Major) and the generic brown one next to him, if you won't trust Google! Face-on to their left is the peach/cream Corythosaurus,

 

You know my view on Spinosaurs, just cheap Dimetrodons! The two little ones look like they could be freebies from the Dino-mag we looked at a few posts back? And two paint-treatments of the same sculpt at back-left.

 

Carnivores; the two biggies at the back are marked Deinonychus on their Chinese bellies, and are paint-variants of the same uncommon, but quite realistic sculpt. And while there was T-Rex and Allosaurus when I wer't'lad, now there are lots of these Carnosaurs.

 

No names on them but various takes on Velociraptor, almost unheard-of in my childhood, they may have been in the books but I don't remember them, now made famous by the Jurassic Park movie-franchise, they are everywhere! They have also been bigged-up in other ways, by the filums, and were actually quite small.

 

Latecomers and oddments include a nice duck-bill (back-left) with an unmarked spiky-fellah in front of him, with a similar skeleton, a cartoony chap and another Pachycephalosaurus to their right, who missed his family picture!

 

Which leaves three dragons! The two larger just marked Made in China, the smaller green one unmarked, but looking like a Pokemon or Anime/Manga character of some sort, with very stylised spikes?

 

Sorting 2020

Just before they went in the car to storage!

 

Many thanks to Jon for all these, they will all be sorted into the master collection (shot above) at some point, and sorting was done as I went, as certain groups made themselves obvious, the gape-mouths with their '2001' mark, were a largish group for instance, so we will return to them as those groups, another day!

H is for How They Come In - The Small Envelope!

Wung its way to me it did, no warning had I got . . . Chris Smith kindley thought I hadn't had enough plunder during lockdown, and he was sort of correct, but I spent on FeeBay for a few bits, but he sent a top-up parcel the other day . . .

. . . with some items for other things and some because they've been seen or mentioned, it is that later lot I've shot outside the bag! The rest will appear here in the near future, but you may spot some clues in the above!

Robots; Chris and I managed to ID the Hong Kong red & blue robots he sent just before Covid struck, and by way of continuing the conversation (they will get their own post when I find something in the collection that goes with them and which I thought I'd found but now can't find! Doh!) sent these individuals.

From the left, I thought this was from Robots, but it's from the earlier Iron Giant, the head being worthy of a law-suit over the later film's main characters' I think! Then two PVC Japanese Manga/Anime 'bots, I have little idea over either, but suspect the red one os a Transformer, the white one (a pencil top) possibly from an older franchise like Atomic Boy or Atom man or whatever it was! The final figure is a Kinder astronaut, but he looks robotic with all that silver.

I also received two gnomes needing re-gnhoming! (hey - it's Chris's joke not mine!), a small one which may also be a Kinder, and a larger one, which I told Chris I might offer to Mr Evans of Plastic Warrior magazine, before realising he sent me two others (in my Gnome Village 'starter kit'; see Blog passim) from the same set, so may already have it in his community?

I think the larger one is a Hong Kong copy of an old Fontanini sculpt, but I'm not sure, so don't quote me on that one, just musing out loud, on the posing!

Cheers Chris - keeps me going!

News, Views Etc . . . Forthcoming Events - Friday 7th - Saturday 13th September 2019

It's gone waaaaay beyond parody hasn't it! Several parallel-universes beyond! Boris rants that Corbyn is the first leader of an Opposition to turn down a General Election; oblivious to the fact he's the first Prime Minister in history to lose his first three votes and not resign!

he's (in order) lost the trust of Parliament, The Scots, his majority, control over Brwreakshit, the sympathy of the Lords, 24, 25, 26 MP's and his brother, while the awful; tediously awful Reese Mogg has given the Election it's poster, lounging on the front bench like a Parisian whore posing for Lautrec! Or a Berlin whore posing for Schiler . . . ooooh-no, that though put's your teeth on edge!

You can't make this shit up and the rest of the world is wondering what the hell happened to the Bri . . . English! The idea we can start trade talks with the likes of Nigeria or Pakistan, Canada or Argentina with any degree of confidence now, should be swiftly forgotten, we have shown the world we are a spent force. With our 18 or 19 little boats letting the Iranians take our tankers!

And remember, even if Boris were to go - I mean GO - today or tomorrow, he'll still get a half-pension for life - courtesy of your tax money, as Maybe-Maybe Not will now be getting hers, as Cam'moron and Brown-trousers, even B.Liar are already in-receipt of theirs!

"Rather be dead in a ditch"? I can help you with that Mr Jonnson, you over-dramatic, over-privileged, under-developed, arrogant, needy, hysterical cockwomble!

Still, there's always toy fairs, and this weekend all the main promoters seem to be kicking-off their autumn programs, so enjoy the spectacle in Westminster for the Comedy Toff's Show it is, and console yourself with old toys . . .

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Toy Fairs

Saturday 7th September 2019

Beconsfield - Toy & Train Fairs (Peter Levinson)

Beconsfield School, Wattleton Road, Buckinghamshire, HP9 1SJ

Internet presence unknown

Tel. - 01282 051 518 (Peter or Diane)

10:30 - 14:30hrs

Admission charge unknown

Brecon - Chris Dyer Fairs

Market hall, Town Centre, Brecon, Powys, Wales, LD3 7LG

Web. - www.chrisdyerfairs.co.uk

Tel. - 01643 702 757

Mob. - 07966 694 579

10:30 - 15:00hrs

Admission £2

Didcot - Retro Ronnie

Civic Hall, Britwell Road, Didcot, OX11 7JN

Web - www.retroronnie.com

Mob. I - 07708 385 061

Mob. II - 07900 266 427

Hours unknown

Admission unknown

Look out for falling towers, exploding transformers and collapsing scafolding, please report any bodies to the authorities!

Penrith - Brian Tattersall - Penrith Toy Fair

Newbiggin Village Hall, Stianton, Penrith, Cumbria, CA11 0HT

Internet presence unknown

Mob. - 07498 711 514

10:00-15:30hrs

Admission charge unknown

New Show

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Sunday 8th September 2019

Ashington - David Parsons - Toy & Train Collectors Fair

Ashington Community Centre, Foster Lane, Ashington, West Sussex, RH20 3PG

Web. - www.modelcarmart.co.uk

eMail - modelcarmart@gmail.com

Tel. - 01424 846 676 (Pete)

Mob. - 07742 609 865 (David)

10:00 - 14:00hrs

 Adults £1.50, concessions £1

Buxton - Barry Potter / BP Fairs

The Octagon Hall, The Pavilion Gardens, St. Johns Road, Buxton, Derbyshire, SK17 6XN

Web. - www.bpfairs.com

Tel. - 01604 846 688

Mob. - 07966 527 177

10:30-15:00hrs

Admission £3.00 [down from £3.50p] (early-bird £6, from 08:00hrs), OAP's £2.50p [down from £3.00], Children £1

[Note: admission-price reductions]

Chartham -  SRP Toy Fairs

Station Road, Chartham, Kent, ME13 7RA

Web. - http://srptoyfairs1.co.uk/

eMail - srptoys1@hotmail.co.uk

Mob. - 07739 998 012 (Paula or Gerry)

10:00 - 14:00hrs

Admission charge unknown

Kidderminster - Tony Oaks Toy Fairs

Guilt Edge Leisure Centre, Zortech Avenue, Kidderminster, Worcestershire, DY11 7DY

Internet presence unknown

Tel. - 01270 652 773

Mob. - 07825 631 323

10:30 - 14:00hrs

Admission £1.50p

Free parking

Kirkby-in-Ashfield - Townsend Toy & Train Fairs (Malcolm Townsend)

Festival Hall, Kirkby-in-Ashfield, Nottinghamshire, NG17 7DJ

Web. - www.tttf.co.uk

Mob. - 07951 072 790

10:00 - 14:00hrs

Admission fee unknown, aaccompanied under-16's free

Free parking, refreshments

St. Ives - J&J Fairs (J&J Webb)

'One Leisure' St. Ives, Burgess Hall Events & Conference Centre, Westwood Road, St. Ives, Cambridgeshire, PE27 6WU

Web. - www.j-jwebbtoyfairs.com

eMail - jandjfairs@virginmedia.com

Tel. - 01522 880 383

10:00 - 14:30hrs

Admission - Adult £3.00p, seniors £2.50, 1st child £2.00p

Where the cats and the sacks and the wives came from, not Cornwall!

Swindon - Retro Ronnie

Swindon Town Football Club, County Ground, Swindon, Wiltshire, SN1 2ED

Web - www.retroronnie.com

Mob. I - 07708 385 061

Mob. II - 07900 266 427

Hours unknown

Admission charge unknown

Wimborn - David Rees

Queen Elizabeth's Leisure Centre (Sports Hall), Blandford Raod, Wimborne Minster, Dorset BH21 4DT

Internet presence unknown

Tel. - 01202 590 158

10:15 - 14:30hrs

Admission charge unknown

Free parking and refreshments

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Tuesday 10th September 2019

Elsecar - Newcomen Fairs Ltd. - 36th Elsecar Toy & Train Fair (evening fair)

Elsecar Heritage Centre, Elsecar, Nr. Barnsley, South Yorkshire, S74 8HJ

Web. - www.newcomenfairs.co.uk

eMail - sales@newcomenfairs.co.uk

Tel. - 01226 744 425

19:00 - 21:00hrs

Admission £1.50p, children 50p

Hook - Steven Clements Fairs - Hook Evening Fair

Hook Community Centre, Hook, Hampshire, RG27 9NN

Tel. - 01380 725 322

Mob. - 07958 101 891

eMail: clementfairs@aol.com

18:30 - 21:30hrs

Admission £1

Free parking

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Thursday 12th September 2019

Theydon Bois - Joe Lock Fairs (evening fair)

Village Hall, Coppice Row, Theydon Bois, Essex, CM16 7ER

Internet presence unknown

Mob. - 07866 641 215

19:00-21:00hrs

Admission £1

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Auctions

Saturday 7th September 2019

Elstree - Excalibur Auctions (day 2 of a 2-day auction, day 1: yesterday; Friday)

The Village Hotel, Elstree, Hertfordshire, WD6 3SB (venue)

Chiltern Business Centre, Woodside Road, Amersham, Buckinghamshire, HP6 6AA (office)

Web. - www.excaliburauctions.com

eMail - enquiries@excaliburauctions.com

Tel. - 02036 330 913

Free Tea or Coffee

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Other Events

From Thursday 5th (last) 'till Sunday 8th September 2019

Largs - LVF - Largs Viking Festival

Various Locations, Largs, North Airshire, Scotland

Web. - www.largsvikingfestival.org

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Friday 6th (today) - Sunday 8th September 2019

Southport - Local Authority / Tourist Board - Southport Air Show

Southport Seafront, Southport, Merseyside, Cheshire

Web. - www.visitsouthport.com

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Sunday 8th September 2019

Cardiff - Film & Comic Con

Motorpoint Arena, Cardiff, Wales

Web. - www.filmandcomicconcardiff.com

London - (Central) - Hugglets Teddy Bear Fair

Kensington Town Hall, Hornton Street, London, W8 7NX

Web. - https://hugglets.com/tf19/

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Overseas Events

Reminder - Friday 6th (today) and Saturday 7th September 2019

Bornheim (Germany) - Antico Mondo (World Antiques) - Auction

Königstrasse 109, Bornheim, Köln, Germany

Web. - www.anticomondo.de

Tel. - ++0223 6961 894

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Saturday 7th September 2019

Joure (Netherlands) - E. Kramer - Die Cast Fair

Zalencentrum t' Haske, Joure, Holland

Tel. - ++0513 416 571

Langenthal (Switzerland) - Toy Fair

Pfarreisaal, Hasenmattstrasse 36, Langenthal BE, Switzerland

Tel. - ++0799 371 544

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Sunday 8th September 2019

Bourgain Jallieu (France) - Alain Taiwan - Toy Fair

Salle Polyvalente, Bourgain Jallieu 38, France

Tel. - ++0683 429 068

Brüchsal (Germany) - Dr. Rolf Theurer - Toy Fair

Burgercentrum, Bruchsal-39 SEAS, Germany

Web. - www.theurers-spielzeugmaerkte.de

Tel. - ++07115 590 044

Fax. - ++07115 590 054

11:00-15:30hrs (local time)

Dublin (ROI) - Chris Dyer Fairs - Dublin Toy & Train Fair

The Talbot Hotel, Stillorgan Road, Dublin, Eire

Web. - www.chrisdyerfairs.co.uk

Tel. - 01643 702 757

Mob. - 07966 694 579

10:30 - 15:00hrs

Admission £4

Just off N11 trunk road

Erpent-Namur (Belgium) - Risques Crépuscule - Toy Fair

Collage ND de la Paix, Erpent-Namur, Belgium

Tel. - ++081 400 149

Hoeselt (Belgium) - Hoeselt Treinclub - Train Show

Ter Kammen, Hoeselt, Belgium

Tel. - ++089 514 644

Milan (Italy) - Parc Expo - Toy Fair

Parco Exposizioni Novegro, Milano-Novegro, Milano, Italy

Tel. - ++0702 000 022

Mönchengladbach (Germany) - J. Hörner - Toy Fair

Kaiser-Friedriche Halle, Mönchengladbach, Rheindahlen, Germany

Tel. - ++0210 351 133

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If you are an event promoter/show curator/auctioneer and you want your toy, model, collectable or popular-/youth-culture type sale/exhibition/event listed here -  FOR FREE  - or linked to; please eMail me -

maverickatlarge[at]hotmail[dot]com

- stating the date/s of the event, address of event, contact details, opening/viewing times, admission pricing and any other relevant facts/details or features - parking, travel notes, disability access, availability of refreshments, event subject matter &etc.

And please mention any flyer-art or poster-/leaflet-scans but send by separate eMail, in case they go to the 'junk' folder, from where they can be recovered and marked safe, but only if I know they're there!

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Other News

Herald Toys & Models

Barney has an end-of-summer sale on at themoment if you're looking for a bargain to occupy the closing-in evenings!

Lego

The Danish pirates were in the news again this week (not many weeks when they aren't one way or another!) which was interesting for the opposite spins it got in different papers. Some claiming it was a return to performance; others saying it was a knock on profits. Basically the overall profits are down due toi store investment, but the year-on-year earnings and/or forecast is up on the 2017 blip.

I was more interested in the crux of the matter which is that they have plans to open 160 Lego stores (eventually the entire oceans with have a permanent, sun-faded but still technicolor scum of Lego-bricks!), most of which are planned not for Europe, not for the USA, but (as with Hamley's) for China and India.

Trump, Boris and the other burkes are only accelerating to a future which was always going to diminish us, and the fact that it's mainly the underclass who are voting for them, ain't going to help the underclass!

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Received with Thanks

You already know about the information and imagery which came from Chris Smith and Andy B earlier in the week as I've Blogged it! But Andy has sent more for the A-Z page (whenever I get that done!) or a future visit/follow-up - and there's a bit in the comments [on that post] re. extra listings of the 'whole' set.

I received some fascinating information from Jonathan Buss which I will edit into an article, or take straight to an A-Z entry.

And I forgot to do RwT last week, so have also to thank Brian Berke, Dougal Hare and Peter Evans for info/images sent previous to this week.

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H is for How They Come In

Only a few pieces this week, a pound-bag from British Heart Foundation with interesting knock-off Go-Go Crazy Bones, but these more figural, or super-deform and recognisable Disney charterers. I also picked-up a 50p bag of bits from Blue Cross which included some Polly-Pocket type micro-doll's furniture, an interesting mushroom and some kinder (or similar) Disney egg premiums of (I think) Aladdin or Beauty &t' Beast?

The best of the Go-Go clone-a-likes; it's a Star-Wars-Angry-Birds-Self-Referential-Up-Its-Own-Arse-Twice-Andy-Warhol's-Pop-Culture-Eating-Itself-Super-Deform-Ersatz-GoGo-Crazy-Bone-Rip-Off- Disney-Pixar-Toy-Story-Armymen Army Man! I think he's saluting?

Is there a box left un-ticked there? I'm only upset that it's not part of a set of 12 with matching Germans in grey!!!

I also picked this up (another 50p!) in . . . Cancer Research - I think; hoping it would help ID some of the more esoteric PVC shite which comes-in in mixed lots. Sadly, I don't think it will be that useful, but it may ID the odd figure from time to time, once I've had a read.

The trouble is - it starts with the premise that the reader already has the Manga in front of them and is needing a back-story or thumbnail history of a specific character, who they already know the name of.

To that end it only illustrates a few of them, so while there is stuff in the text which will help ID figures (split-colour gown, robe with such-and-such on it &etc), and about 1-in-6 are illustrated, it's really for fans of Manga comics, rather than an idiot toy-collector, but it will stay, for its limited use. It will - of course - give me the background to characters who I can ID elsewhere . . . like on any packaging the come with - my Dragon Ballz sets!

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Links

Following the Hamley's Asian expansion some may see this as a very shrewd-move, the Irish will have a lot of brand-familiarity, but, if you want to be a Toy Soldier . . . FAO Schwarz!

BMC Armywomen - Gathering momentum!...

... and here...

...and here (pop-ups).

More on Yoga-joes, which saves me having to buy some - they're not cheap!

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Something Different

Shot these two yesterday down at the pond, the Red Admiral has a hint of the blue scallops you get round the edges of Tortoiseshell's wings, revealing a genetic link between the two 'senior' butterflies.

While I'd shot several good pictures of the red dragonflies in the garden a couple of days before which I mean to Blog separately!

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