R is for Rack Toy Roadies

I tend to grab the odd die-cast from time to time, usually to ID a figure or animal, for future reference, but occasionally I'll buy a figureless one because . . . military or space! They, or their images, have been building in Picasa for a while now, so let's get them cleared out!

 

This actually dates back to 2015, and may have been seen, possibly in a green version in another post, but was grabbed, along with the more accidental find of the Chap Mai one, and in addition to others seen on Small Scale World, for an eventual follow-up to this post;

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2010/04/h-is-for-hummer-humvee-hmmwv-humbug.html

 

If I recall correctly, these High & Drive, were 99p, in the - now - long-defunct 99p Stores, which were still going that year.

 

The same year, this was added to the pile, and I didn't even get it out of the card, it's the Jackle AFV, I think, a hurried replacement for the Land Rover Wolf, WMIK and RWMIK's which were proving so vulnerable in Afghanistan, and excising the tabloids. The front's a bit wrong, but it was quite a new vehicle back then, and in real life, the type remains in service with Light Cavalry as a reconnaissance vehicle.

 

This bit of fun was bought in 2021, and I really only purchased it because, a quid! And it's military green, but all fictional, a bit surfer culture, a bit post-apocalyptic (and 'straight to video'!), with a hint of suitability for the Gaslands or Car Wars role-playing/war-gaming rule-sets? Corgi's 'Rod Squad'.

This was a funny one, the first of three purchases in 2024, it was bought for the bike, and purely as a future ID'er, for the chopped Harley/'US Custom', but what was weird, was that none of the other vehicles on the rack had the necessary or even 'a' tow-bar/hook to pull this trailer?

 

In the old days of the 1-75 Series (originally 1-50), several vehicles in each tranche, would have the hook necessary for whatever towed caravan, boat or motorcycle was in the range at the same time, but, despite looking at every rack, pile or box of Matchbox since this purchase, I have not yet found a towing vehicle?

 

 

Actual surfer, this was bought purely to ID the figure in future mixed lots, and I could have shelfied it, but again this stuff is always between 99p and a couple of quid, so, what the hell!

 

 

Siku, apart from a Leopard Tank in sub-scale a few years ago, there is very little from them either these days, military anyway, but I managed to find this in vague 1:72 scale (I think most of this stuff is closer to 1:60?), and again it's more about ID'ing in the future than anything else, but, a nice horse sculpt.

 

While this Pass N' Go from Mattel's line of Hot Wheels came in the other day, and I just thought it was fun that the old Monopoly car had been 'given life' as it were! Nothing to do with the collection, core or peripherals really, just a fun, impulse purchase!

Note - This is the first post using Grammarly for Firfox, instead of the old LT Spell Checker which decided it wanted money now! I had to re-start to get the Grammarly activated, but it seems to be working, however, apologies for any typos which get through.. 

R is for Roveing Reporter's Rack-toy Round-up #2

The second set of images from Brian Berke were all taken in a New Your branch of a Japanese firm called Daiso, and are mostly beyond the parameters of the Blog, but it's a movable feast, and water-pistols/ray guns have crept in over the years!

 

With Dinosaur!

 

Although not the same, this double-decker looking firearm, reminds me of Deckard's piece from the original Blade Runner movie, I'd call it 'seminal movie', but there are about five versions, and the better ones have been watched by the least numbers of viewers!

 

 

Clip-together, or basic constructional infant toys, it's a "yes" from me for the motorcycle, which seems to be a finer model, still on the runner, the other two are more grandchild fodder, but I hope Brian won't mind me pointing out, he does look at this stuff with a grandfather's eye now!

 

Both marked Series B, I must assume another B was the Roaches, with other critters in the Series A, whenever that was current? Ants, Spiders and ? Maybe?

 

Daiso had also sourced some stuff more locally, and these last three are from Jaru, a US jobber/importer of some standing, in both years and ranges, squishy stretch-monsters are cool! Thanking Mr Berke, and there's more to come!

D is for Donation - Peter - Odds and Sods

Isn't it typical? Last week I probably lost a few pounds working a six-day'er in that heat, with gardening at both ends, tonight I got rained on! Anybody would think the weather's trying to get rid of us . . . oh! Still, before we slip of this planet, there's still a lot to do, and this is the penultimate post of Peter Evans and Chris Smith's recent donations to the Blog, being all the stuff which didn't get put in the previous posts, and haven't been sent to RTM!

 

An assortment of novelty bits, parts, and what I suspect are the rubber caps from a clothes-horse or drainer? The pea-shooter brings back memories, and you can see from the damage where it was bent against the missing mouthpiece, the downfall of many such weapons!

 

Kinder horse, farm trailer, barbed wire and other scenics, this stuff all has a place, they all have a tub or box where they are sorted by type, annotated when ID'd or otherwise wait for more info' to turn-up, often in eBay lots or old catalogue shots, Argos and Index are useful, but so are the earlier home-shopping ones from Freemans, Grattan, Littlewooods and the like.

 

'Made in Hong Kong'

 

'Hong Kong'

 

'Blue Box'

 

'Superior'

(T. Cohn) 

 

I don't really want to be accruing this stuff, as I have no interest in doll's house accessories, except - of course - that they are part of the history of early plastic toys, and the companies behind them, and I was well aware that one or two members of the Higher Council of the Old Guard had a few shoe-boxes of this stuff, purely for research purposes, and now it seems I am fated to have some too! A car-boot job lot, if nothing else, it's a clear sample of the Superior mark, and Blue Box colours!

 

All brittle polystyrene, except the Superior items which are in the polyethylene soft plastic.

 

Various items of Britains Garden, and the original lead stuff, not the plastic, of which I also have quite a sample, more by accident than design, but it was almost the Lego of its day, fiddly, construction toy with endless configurations, and I think I'm right in saying it was a wider range than the later plastic set?

 

A lovely sheep with lamb, and a home-cast or penny-toy battleship, which has seen better days, but if it's the only sample, it's very welcome!

 

A cake-decoration Robin, needing foot surgery, but fascinating in painted plaster and lead, and more dolls house accessories, but with the sort of age which makes them ornamental, or decorative 'white elephant' bric-a-brac, rather than tacky-placky!

 

The two jugs (or jug and vase) are lovely, they are bisque, and probably German, although they could be Japanese, but very fine work, compared to the white glazed earthenware of British doll's china of the time (which you often find while gardening in older locations), while the smoothing-iron's stand seems to be die-cast?

 

This is fun, and an amazing survivor, from the 1950's or 60's? It actually works as a bell, is clearly a tree-decoration, but is also figural, with a Santa Claus handle, If I wasn't giving these things a home, they'd be lost!

 

We would have never been allowed something like this, our parents had a dim-view of plastic, and all things Hong Kong, and it's a bit kitch, but sixty-years later, it's pretty extraordinary!

 

These really should have been in the TV/Movie post, except the guardsman belongs in the Ceremonial and Historical post, so they ended-up here, they are all Phidal, and I can only assume the Guardsman is from some London/London Sights-related book?

 

This is also amazing, and I don't know if it's Hong Kong, something French, or even more local, it's marked on the sidecar R C I, of which I can find nothing, and in conversation with Peter when he showed it to me I said "I can shoot it in a comparison with the Airfix and the other one", but I can't remember who the 'other one' was by (Fairylite? Co-Ma?), and I was thinking of the ice-cream carts, while this is actually a motorcycle and sidecar, so I was talking nonsense!

 

Mostly Airfix, but mixed so they ended-up here, the yellow chap at the back is from a board game called Fortress America, which I haven't covered yet, despite having them in the stash, from MB Games, and a cross between Risk, Shogun and Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (which all play for zones or chunks of territory), it has recently been reissued in an updated form, from Ink Voltage.

 

Cones! There is a whole tub of them waiting a proper sort and ID session!

H is for How They Come In - Sandown, February

At Sandown Park in February Steve Vickers gave me a bag of bits he'd been keeping for me, junk to him, and mostly grist-to-the-mill for me, to be sorted into larger samples, but there were, nevertheless, several useful bits and at least one new-to-stash figure, so let's have a look at them!

 

Always useful, there are several versions of these Hong Kong motorcycles, in each size, particularly the very small Christmas cracker type, and when coupled with numerous colours of each version, it won't be until I've done final sorting, that I'll know how many of these are new.

 

A Hong Kong bath-toy boat and two kit boats, there are many tubs of these and other small vessels, and while the larger one is damaged, it might be the only sample of that deck-type, the hulls being all the same, and every time I find some, there's at last one new - shape/colour/paint - one!

 

Probably all modern/current, but I can't assume I've got them all, until I can compare them, with all the stuff in storage!

 

Useful bits, the skeleton with a German army helmet, is from one of those whacky, daddy-oh, Ed Roth style model-kits, the cactus (Hong Kong copy of Crescent) may be a new colour, the chair has a tub of small-scale furniture to join . . . all good stuff!

 

Pretty sure, without checking, these are the Marty-M Toy-Maymoon stuff, and as useful spares, have a place, indeed with its sticker still extant, I may cannibalise another jeep to make this one the exemplar?

 

The new to collection figure here is the blue one in the centre, possibly a gum or ice-cream premium, I may have other's from the - European - set, but I've not seen this sweeping mouse before. Another of the many athletes is also very useful, and, in fact, I think the khaki chap, fourth from the right is new too? Maybe French? I'm also still looking for several of the Matchbox pairs, still connected, and this may be one of the (middle left)?

 

A camouflage New Ray signaller, harder to find than any of the many copies, is the highlight in these four, the Thomas/Taffy is a tad damaged, but the Lido GI may be original, the Lido German is an HK copy, but in an unusual grey plastic.

 

Kit figures, these are a future, major sorting, I have loads of them, but getting Italeri, Tamiya and Airfix 'Multipose' separated, is the easy bit, the US box-scale/odd-scale stuff from the 1950's-early 1960's is a nightmare, but one I'll have to tackle one day. 

 

The real grist-to-the-mill, you can't know if they are new, or common, until you compare them with all the others, and there are many others! Again, it's something I intend to do one day, and they will each get their own pages, although the Airfix clones will end-up on the relevant post of the Airfix Blog!

 

Likewise, there's a lot of this stuff, and the best way to sort it properly is to compare it to bagged/carded samples, and it's a big job, not helped by the fact that the main, or known producers of it, Ellem, M-Toy, and Star, were themselves pirated many times by their local competitors, and a western importer might carry one maker's one year, and another makers another year, sometimes in/on the same bag/card!

Many thanks to Steve for all these, he wouldn't take any dosh for them, and sharing them with you is the easy task, much sorting in my future, I see!