D is for Donation - Peter - Sci-Fi & Fantasy

Probably the best subsection after historical, for general interest, and new figures, due, as much as anything, to the large number of die-cast or big-box play set enhancers, or small run/low pose-number figure sets; drivers/pilots and play-accessories, novelties, or game-playing pieces, which turn up, and both donations have stuff which is new to me!

 

And we'll start with these which are all new to me, allowing for a couple of missing figures, they would seem to be a 48-count, split into four sides, each of 3x4 poses, although some of the poses are very similar.

 

Something of Groot, or Ents here?

 

Flamers, if you study the hands you'll see they are different sculpts - just!

 

Likewise with the second and fourth poses here.

 

Is it Earth, Fire, Air and Water?

 

A simple 'CHINA' is the only clue to these, who would have required a quite large bag or box. They are a softish PVC-alike polymer, possibly a silicon, but not the old glossy type of Diener erasers? Anyone recognise them, I don't think they can be that old, and may be/have been, from a game?

 

Two probable game-players here too, either side of a magnetic ger'nome of unknown origin. That's 16 out of 16 totally new items! Good start!

 

This is all new as well, or is it? We may have seen it here as a 'paint-your-own' shelfie, possibly from/in The Range, as I suspect that's what it is, I wondered if it might be/also be glow-in-the-dark, but it isn't/doesn't.

 

HG or DFC types, they all need a bigger sort out, as quite apart from three or four companies issuing this stuff through the 1980's, mainly, there were also sub-piracies, and base variations, which all need to be properly annotated.

 

I think we've seen these before, one Halloween, or in the build-up to, and despite the disparate nature of the and/or the materials they are made from, I seem to recall they were all the contents of one big-bag, from one of the UK's major supermarkets. It was a few years ago now, and recent years have seen no similar offerings.

 

Grist-to-the-mill here, but the more of these which come in, the more paint/finish variations pop-up, especially in the treatment of helmet visors, and the amount of paint on the figures, NASA-types, from four or five sources, here we see the smaller, believed to be Pioneer (for Realtoy/Dacron) and K&M (Wild Republic) sculpts.

 

A trio of MPC clones to be sorted into the collection, and a number of the Mon Desir chocolate egg premiums, but four sculpts we didn't see last time, so possibly-probably an earlier 1st, or later, 2nd tranche?

 

Five of the Lik Be (LB) spacemen, these are the later - Clifford era - version, following the paint scheme of earlier issues, but simplified (no green air-tanks, unpainted bases) with no paint on the back halves of the models, and the strangely blue-eyes; really late sets being unpainted.

 

And finally . . . an ornamental ger'nome, of the fairground side-stall prize variety - hoop, hook or shoot the ducks, fish or clowns, get a ger'nome, to take home! A solid chunk of polystyrene, decorated by automated or stenciled air-brush, it's very much in the same style as the Irish passenger-jig we saw a few years ago, as a PW show-purchase.

 

And, when I said it was a month to the next show the other day, it was actually two months, but now, it's only about six-weeks! Thanks to Peter Evans for all the above, does anyone know who the first lot are, or the pair with the magnetic Gnome, or for that matter, what he is?

D is for Mar...mer...err...not DC

While clearing a few DC bits out of Picasa around the submissions by Brian, I also thought to clear these out, but they are the other lot - Marvel! It's funny, when I was a kid the impression was always given (or that's the message I got) that Marvel were all powerful, and DC the 'also-rans' or 'smaller party'.

But actually it's clear that it's the other way round, Marvel have the Spider Man (a copy of the Man Bat) and err . . . the Hulk? Thor totally escaped me and Captain America was . . . an American! Likewise; Collectively the Avengers are a warped mirror of the Justice League?

DC - on the other hand - have Superman, Batman & Robin, Wonder Woman, Super Girl . . . a whole bunch of big characters, but anyway, that was my take on it then and my opinion now, however; some people prefer Marvel and for them: a quick round-up of current gift-egg contents . . . and a few other bits.

These are all out there at the moment, the Zàini 'Ultimate Spiderman' ones have reappeared with a greater choice of contents and next to them are a set of 'Avengers' eggs from the same source with various characters on the wrappers, I got a Hulk, but I saw Thor and a Captain America one.

This figure is becoming a bugbear for me, I was given one by Garth Morgan years ago as thanks for helping him with his Blog, then I bought one from Peter Evans in a mixed-lot, and finally when I bought one of the eggs I got him again! And I've forced you to share [suffer] the same disappointment . . . because he's been on the blog before!

It is nevertheless a nice sculpt, with a dynamic pose attained through the use of multiple clip-together parts to get round the problem of undercuts. I probably said all that before too, if I was you; I'd ask for my money back, this is duplicate copy!

The new changes in the gift line-up, between issues 1 and what - going on the information on the safety leaflet - seems to be issue 6; namely; the addition of three pencil-rubber/erasers.

I actually got one of the looped 'charms' - of interest as it is an over-moulding; using the layered over-moulding Italian military badges were using long before Timpo had a go. Which is not a dig at Timpo, their form of over-moulding was a far more technical achievement that this one-layer-over-another style, but you can see where the idea came from.

Also I got a pencil-rubber, but from the Avengers egg, not the Ultimate Spiderman one. As there are nice figures in the series I will try again, until I've had all the wrappers and scanned them into the archive, but these will all turn-up in mixed lots five or ten years from now, if experience is any guide! It's worth noting that the disclaimer/'small print' down the bottom of the paper slip hints at a wider range?

Bonbon Buddies are offering a much wider range of gifts, but no figures, so I won't be returning to them in a hurry! This is real 5p / 10¢ vending machine stuff isn't it!

These came from The Works quite a while ago (2011), and were clearance from a larger line coming from Hasbro Canada; reasonable figures in around 54mm I think - they're in storage now and might have been closer to 60 or even 70mm.

I picked these up in the same The Works about three-weeks ago, for a quid each, and I can't remember the handling brand, but I will get more when I see them (they've disappeared but should reappear) as they are really nice figures, and we'll get the brand then.

The Disney Princesses are the 'new movie' style which is semi- or near-realistic, especially when turned into a 3D figure, while The Hulk is a solid chunk of PVC; these figurines are/have real value for money.

The Hulk was funny . . . every week he'd lose his temper, rip his shirt 'clean ahrrrff' (to quote Dirty Harry), somehow maintain his trousers at the waist but shred the turn-ups? Tip a pick-up truck or car onto its side, not kill a bad-guy or two, stop a digger, let the bad guys run off, calm-down, find a woman to fall in love with, do something in the bedroom with her (which we knew involved kissing a girl...urrrh), have a shower, get new clothes from and then leave the woman - citing his crap life and at the same time next week, be found losing his temper again, in another set of clothes altogether! And where did his little rucksack go between the temper-loss and the end credits, when it always reappeared? Maybe his rucksack was like a Tardis, waiting somewhere out of shot to be called when needed, filled with a thousand sets of clothes . . . and shoes . . . and a toothbrush!

Calling the curtain down on Superheroes of all types for a while here on the Blog are an unknown 'super-deform' Spidey that must have come-in with a mixed lot at some time and the set of Mon Desir figures we've also seen before.

S is for Spidy, Spiderman, Super Heros and Slow-mo (Mr. Banner getting angry!)

A real box-ticking exercise this one (and an ongoing clear-out of Picasa!), contemporary (2011) chocolate-egg toys by someone who's not Ferrero/Kinder! Actually; 'Mon Desir'.

Made of polystyrene they are probably what are known as 'deforms' but not 'super-deforms'. Also; they appear to have been designed to hold things as 'ring-hands' but the swallow-ability factor seems to have prevented that idea being carried forward.

Probably a set of 12, I know there are at least two more to track-down still; The Thing and a lady spider-person! I think the most useful figure is the white one (ghost-man?) as he can be painted to any super-hero that takes you fancy!