F is for Follow-up - Wavyline Magic Roundabout

So, re: the red set of Magic Roundabout premiums in the previous post (see below, or click on 'previous post/s'), the colours usually associated with the known UK issue, are as these;

 

To which you can add orange, we looked at them in more detail here;

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2018/09/f-is-for-follow-up-magic-roundabout.html

 

in part as a follow-up to the previous post here;

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2017/01/c-is-for-contribution-week-iii-tatra.html

 

And while some sources still call them 'cereal premiums', we know they were issued with biscuits here in the UK (above colours) and as Olá ice cream premiums in Europe, as a much wider range of colours, they were probably also issued as individual gum packet premiums in Europe, under more than one brand, and now; 

 

Wavyline Magic Roundabout

 

Promotion

No.00997

 

Wavyline premiums. This is at least the second set of these to appear on-line, there is one on there now (same given code, which might be the promotion-code, rather than a carton number), but I would never use live images, I know someone who would, but he has the ethics of an ally-cat, and the morals to match! Scally's, what can you do?

 

Do we start with the image, or start with the history? Wavyline was a small, independent supermarket chain, in the Co-Op model; smaller, local 'supermarket' or convenience stores, down here in my neck of the woods, indeed, I think the current Tesco in Hartley Wintney was a Wavyline once, after it was a butcher's? Then an International? But, I might have made all that up? I was a kid! And, we used the Keymarkets in Farnham, now a Sainsbury's superstore!

 

The image above, shows each pose/sculpt in a separate bag, and while I don't know the nature of the premium/prize issue, I'm guessing it was a bit like Green-Shield Stamps (other stamp collecting schemes were available!), except with instant gratification, i.e., spend a pound, get a figure, spend five - get six figures, something like that? The similar Codec stores in France, were running giveaways in their rural shops, using multi-issuer premiums; ex-Van Brode, ex-Bonux etc . . .

 

EFE Bedford TK as articulated tractor-trailer for Wavyline

HO-OO gauge/scale

(http://www.modelbuszone.co.uk/efe/trucks/bed/22002gy.html)

 

So, if you did live in a village or suburb lucky enough to have a Wavyline, or a smaller market town, where everyone knew everyone else, and/or you knew the staff in the store, you could, upon qualifying for the dividend, ask for them to be red, so long as red ones were still in the bag, or you could ask for the figure/character of your choice? If your aunty/Mum/older sibling worked in the store, they might put aside the ones you were still needing?

 

Which would enable you to build a set of red ones! Or blue ones! So, the set I picked-up in DEBRA the other day were probably Wavyline, not Nabisco (who put one (random colour) in each pack), not that you would know, when you find them loose, they were all coming from the same factory, which still hasn't been identified, either side of the Channel. But the point is, we've lost more than we know, with a lot of this stuff, and it's only lucky feeBay hits, which fill the blanks we didn't even know were there!

W is for Welgar

Also in the Nabisco section of the folders (see previous post) was this from the 1950's, credited to Welgar, the original branding of the Shredded Wheat factory, Shredded Wheat being a US licensed product, which Nabisco bought, Shredded Wheat is now part of the Kraft group, while Nabisco is owned by Mondelēz. Welgar is a portmanteau word for Welwyn Garden [City], where the factory was established.

Part of a set, the rest can be seen here, but sadly only as thumbnails. I might cut these out one day and stand them up with a few Britains Polar Bears or something! Not really to scale, the two figures are around 60/70mm?

F is for Follow-ups - Recent Matters Arising

A few shots of thing mentioned in passing or otherwise covered in recent posts;

It turned out I actually had the buildings, found on the cereal packet-backs, that were part of the N-gauge promotion from Graham Farish in Shredded Wheat, hiding in the archive folders! They are based on existing structures from Grafar, but simplified, the farmhouse having two chimneys in the case of the original, for instance, while I think I have the BP garage as a small, plastic box, so we may return to these, one day?

 

The comparison shot I meant to take at the time, but didn't manage to, when looking at the Marx play-set tin, the other Marx in the middle and the Deluxe Reading (Thomas in orange) on the right. And I was wrong to suggest they'd go with the other figures, as both a markedly smaller, but you could mix them in with a larger set-up!

 

IF - reading the minds of the locals!

 

I wasn't sure if we'd seen the figure in  a post, but I don't think so, anyway, when I got home from the Sandown show, the red driver here had ended-up in a tray of smallies, but I knew it was part of this old Tudor Rose dumper-truck, so I suggested to Adrian that next time I saw him I might as well get the truck, as I should have done so at the time!

Twelve parts including the driver, and we've seen him before, he's one of those chaps that keep turning-up in lose lots and donations, and I should have him in blue, green and yellow plastic too. We have actually seen this before, it was an early post from archive material, shot with the blessing of John Begg, many years ago, with a multicoloured version in that set, one has to suspect all-one-colour versions were available in the other three colours as well?

 

Finally, combining the donation from Chris Smith with the Sandown purchase, on the little brittle polystyrene sub-piracies of what were probably early Matchbox 1-75 series, as mentioned previously, gives us six models! And the point it's illustrating is that with all this stuff there is often more than one pile currently in the stash, and when it all gets brought together, we will start to see some definitive stuff, I hope!

 

I was looking at a rather nice 76-foot long-boat the other day for £45k, well within my budget?!!

L is for Lots of London Loot - Three IS a Few!

The other half of Peter's August donation, and another eclectic collection of odds and ends, figural and vehicular, structural and peculiar, aqueous and funicular! I know, I shouldn't be allowed!

This was rather ironic, as I'd had one, we may even have seen it here at Small Scale World, if we did I probably mentioned it was incomplete but still eminently playable-with, and would go back to Charity (from whence it came), and which it did . . . now, here's a fully parade-ready example which can go in the collection!

I can't remember if someone ID'd it, or if it's a generic from a big-box action figure play set of the sort you find piled-high in Smyths or B&M, but it's a nice model in a sort of interim M38/Wrangler style, which may be aiming for one of those 1970's Toyota designs?

 

Kinder Barbies, I have had several sets groups of these come in now, more from Peter, some from Charity, probably a couple from Chris, and Brian Carrick may have given me a handful too, the trouble with them is that while, at first glance, the bases look the same, they are all slightly different with specific feet/shoe holes or holds, depending.

And, as you can see, I managed to match-up two before I gave up, not because it was that hard, but because I'd already failed spectacularly to match up a larger sample, last time we looked at them! When they are all together, I'll sit down, make the effort and get them up here, pristine!

 

The earlier sets (covered in Plastic Warrior magazine at the time), had figure specific bases if I recall correctly (they're all in storage again), each base had two figures, or was reused in the series two or something, but there have now been four or five series', and we'll look at them all in an overview one day, with the similar Superhero sets.

Incomplete, but a useful sample, it's one half of an O-gauge level crossing, in tin-plate and die-cast, I don't think it's 'Binns Road' (Hornby), and it doesn't look like Crescent (the other make I'm a bit familiar with, so maybe someone like Chad Valley, or 'Foreign'? I stand to be educated on this one, by someone who actually knows?

A handful of the Supreme/SP Toys 'Silver Knights' a slowly growing sample, which when they are all brought together will have most of the elements now, I think, and hopefully enough weapons and shields to equip that sample properly!

We've seen WOW Eggs before, I think, and there is a mini-season of capsule toy updates in the medium-queue, but I thought a near 54mm (I don't think you count the tail beyond where the feet should be?!!), articulated-waist Mermaid was a bit of fun!

I had a quick root-through the donation box while still at Peter's, but having a train to catch, when I saw these, and realised what they were, just said to Peter, "Ooh, mail-away boxes, I'll save these, to open as a surprise when I get home", which I did!

Rather exquisite, if historically anachronistic, or unrealistic (?) N-gauge train, branded to Nabisco (now Nestle/Kraft)'s Shredded Wheat! Obviously I don't have sections of powered, N-gauge track lying around here, so I can't test it, but I don't need it, as the locomotive is weighted in the engine-compartment, but unpowered. Issued in 1989, the loco' and coaches were manufactured by Graham Farish (Grafar/GF), and the two wagons are different, with one having a guards-compartment.

 

Couple of hours later - "Have you come across a good transport marketing gimmick?" - Well? Have you, readers! Hee-hee, you can almost hear his brain whirling! Except he clearly hasn't got one, always following, never leading!

 

To enhance the above, and the tray of mini/micro-railway samples, were these floor-runners from Dinky, I well remember Mum trying, with the blue Mallard from this set (or was it Matchbox?), to take the wheels off damaged Lone Star Treble-O stock, in order to get it to run on that track!

 

I seem to remember, as a small boy, some of the underground trains still having that crescent-corridor join, to help them go round corners, before someone worked out that distancing them from each other, like surface trains, was easier! But that may be a false memory and I stand to be corrected on that, too!

 

An incomplete, probably Kinder moped and a wooden erzgebirge station building, round-off the odds in this donation.

 

While this could have been kept for Rack Toy Month, but I'm not minded to look that far ahead, given the fluidity of my life at the moment! Many Thanks to Peter, as always, for all this grist to the twin mills of sample-stash and Blog!

D is for ♫♪♪♪ Dog Days Are Over! ♫♫♪

Aaannnd . . . we return to the 'probably not Rubinstein' trope of a year ago! Indeed, while I have spent that year diligently (occasionally) searching (checking feeBay), and have seen a few more of the sets covered in those posts last year, I have still not found a single pack, or fragment of packaging linking Rubinstein to these dogs!

But, despite the complete lack of empirical evidence for a connection, people keep insisting they are Rubinstein, just as some persist not only in using 'LP' for LB, when they could just use the donor Lik Be (to retain a modicum of credibility!), or keep calling limbers 'caissons' or vise-versa (despite a long, cogent thread on the subject on Treefrog, or a Blog somewhere), the continued use of DGN ('design') is another one, but it does sort of explain Trump, Brwreakshit and a dozen other pointers to our careering toward the end of Western hegemony, or even full extinction!

I think this is actually the seller's image, and again, full sets, multiple lot-listing, not ex-shop stock, but, like yesterdays HK/Tim Mee set, ex-factory stock or ex-out-painter stock, not that either set was known to be painted, but you know what I mean, somewhere in the UK at least two people, had sackfuls of stuff which some collectors would have you believe - through their false narratives - shouldn't be here!

 

The American names for these are, from the left; Boxer, Pug, Boston Terrier and [Dobermann] Pinscher, but to my eyes the pug looks more like a Bulldog, leaving a Mastiff and Boxer as the white pair?

 

German Shepherd (Alsatian), Pointer (gun dog), Irish [Red] Setter, Beagle and Cocker Spaniel. Again, if they were in-scale, which they are clearly not, the Beagle would be better described as a Foxhound.

Dachshund, Scottie (Scot's Terrier), Toy Poodle, Basset Hound and Chihuahua.

 

Greyhound, Russian Wolfhound (Borzoi), Airedale (Terrier) and Collie.

And while most of these are white plastic, there are a few of the Nabisco silver/gold/copper-bronze ones, as made for Kellogg's and Nabisco (and Peke Freans et al.) as soldiers of all nations (under various titles), by Tatra Plastics, who also did a few white plastic soldiers?

Now, I'm not saying these are by Tatra, I know nothing about them as far as this apparent UK stock goes, they could even be Peak Freans premiums? But I am saying they, like the soldiers have as yet to be presented in Rubenstein packaging, and now we know Rubenstein were just another 1970's rack-toy jobber, they were probably last to this story if they turned-up at all, far better to call the Soldiers 'Kellogg's' (as they issued them in more territories that Nabisco or 'Freans), and the Dogs 'Nabisco' as the only named carrier, until more evidence comes to life.

Personally I suspect Tatra, but they didn't claim them when they were in contact over their 50th anniversary, and while they promised to look in their archive, once they'd had their publicity here, at Small Scale World, they went very quiet, and then, ironically given the number of companies they'd swallowed over the previous few decades, got swallowed!

And as to issuer . . . Nabisco have to be up there with Peak Freans, but ice cream, lucky-bags or Christmas cracker issuers (Tom Smith?) have to be serious considerations, suffice to say someone was clearly planning on issuing them here, even if they didn't.

 

Along with yesterday's these are still available on evilBay.uk, I think. Someone in the 'States has a set of these for over 100-quid on Etsy, while a seller in the UK will let you have them for a tenner! Interestingly Nabisco issued a book on dogs (as National Biscuit co.), and in their Australian territory, a set of cereal premium dog collector-cards, so they were a bit hung-up on dogs!

25-10-2024 - I got my copy of PW196 today, and read with interest the anticipated article on Rubenstein,; and nothing above, nor anything I wrote fourteen months ago needs to be corrected! It's actually quite amusing, only confirming some of my past mutterings, and I'll deal with it fully in a future post!

T is for Two-Dimensional Terrasaurs!

I think we've looked at these before and I explained my lack of a decent sample, but I've picked-up a few interesting bits on them, or related to them, in the last few years, so time for a better overview despite the lack of samples! Nabisco's Dinosaur Flats.

 

Except they aren't Nabisco, and there are only twelve of the 20, and I don't think they are even the Aussie issue, in fact, I think they are quite recent manufacture, (possibly from older tools), and came in this red and a mid-blue (below), and in the slightly chalky polyethylene of some really cheap rack-toy 'Army Men'.

As we can see from this comparison they are slightly smaller copies of the original set, but are otherwise quite good, sculpturally, with minimal loss of etched detailing, and no more than a millimetre smaller, overall, with thicker bases.

 

Most notable is the loss of depth to the mouldings, making them even flatter flats! The UK issue came in various shades from almost pure white to an 'ivorene' shade of clotted-cream!

 

Wagner in Germany also carried these - possibly first? And I'm pretty sure some of the base-names were Germanised, so they are something to look out for, but those with the same spelling can't be told apart, unless they have a Wagner sticker, which you don't usually get on the cavity-based issues.

 

Another comparison shot.

 

I am slowly picking up the set, but at my current rate I'll need at least another 30-years! The red polyethylene one on the right, is a modern copy, possibly from the same source as the animals I got from The Swagman's Daughter (and which were used as window-missile prizes, on feast-days in Malta), a few years ago, of a second, nicer set of Euro-flat premiums, where each animal comes with a little bit of prehistoric landscaping! Here, it's probably from a Christmas cracker?

From Cluck 1, and I can't find Cluck 2 right now, which had a better image of one of the kids-comic advertisements for the series, but, it's a checklist, and Cereal Offers have the whole set and more here;

http://cerealoffers.com/Cereal_Partners/Shreddies/1950s/1/1.html

Those data rings from the end-of-promotion mail-away, are very hard to find!

B is for Best Show on Earth! 3. Ancient and Medieval

So; continuing with the plunder posts from the Plastic Warrior show in Twicker's a few weeks ago, and we're looking at the older eras depicted by toy soldiers, because it's all about the Toy Soldiers, or at least it used to be, these days it's as much about the spacemen or civilians, but you know what I mean!

 

Andy came over and asked me if these two Elastolin were worth a fiver, and while I'm no expert on the subject I said I thought they were given that they were two variants of the same figure, in good condition with the latter, rarer (or less common) moulding, only for him to frog-march me over to the seller? Before I knew what had happened, I was the proud owner of both? I'd thought I was just giving advice!

And they do make a nice pair, there are books published in Germany which go into intense detail on the left-hand figure, with endless colour variations, paint styles, base type hierarchy and so on, while the right-hand figure is unusual for being a harder plastic than the polyethylene of some other samples I have.

 

There are also French and Spanish copies of some of these, usually without the edge/rim to the base, and often silver or gold plastic, sometimes primary colours, usually unpainted.

 

A handful of 40mm Starlux medievals, who happen to split equally into blue/green and red/yellow armies for the purposes of photography, not planned as I picked them out of a larger sample. I have a few others somewhere, I think some have been on the Blog passim, so hopefully when we see them again, they'll be an even better shot!

Food premiums came in the guise of a Kinder Gaulish warrior and two Shredded Wheat 'Kings & Queens' series, I have lots of the latter, but don't know if I have all of them, and seem to grab them whenever I see them going cheap, and they are all over the place, so hopefully when I get them all togther there will be a full set - relief flats with the data on the flat back.

A nice handful of the early Cherilea knights, only bits and pieces, but there's a complete figure in the centre and enough bits for a second, sans helmet. I have managed to get several lots like this over the last few years (I know I have a whole archer somewhere), so when I look at them in full in the future we should get a better idea of them.
 

A small discussion was held about these, from which I gathered they exist, they turn up occasionally, they're interesting, but not interesting enough to buy, so I bought them! I wonder if they might belong with the previous swoppet types, from Cherilea, but currently 'unknown', the arms in non-matching plastic are heat-welded on.

Small scale from three sources and came in three donations I think with a bunch of Italeri/Zvezda Normans, a sub-piracy of Supreme's small-scale horse, a Giant knight and another Norman with a touch of paint.

 

This year's new set/s from Replicants were a selection of ancient/medieval levy/revolting peasants/belligerent civi's . . . they're not going to take it any more! Either side of which are two of the helmets from Airfix's 1:12th scale (six inch) character kits, being Richard III's on the left and the Black Princes on the right. As you can see they'll make nice enhancers for shelf displays or similar?

 

I've left them in the bag for now, but they are sculpted in Peter's usual, very animated, style and a nice mix of male and female types, with a lute player chivvying them all along with a Hay-nony-no, although the lady with a cleaver seems to have heard it before - once too often; you can have too much of a bard-thing!

 

Now . . . I have to get all these right, 'cos Brian Carrick put me right and then I must go and change the old post, which I could have/should have done three weeks ago, but life's too short and it's my 'eemies' who get excited about my odd errors, not me! These two ARE Guilbert from France, as is the horse, who is missing his tail.

 

This is a Colorado horse, which came with the Musketeer lot, also French, but maybe for Wild West? I have somewhere a bunch of painted French Wild West by several companies, in a little box which I think came from Sam of Sam's Minis, and I think they have been repainted, but I must sort them out one day, and hopefully there may be a rider for this beast?

 

These two are Ludorev reissues from the Rene Fisher lot below and like the lot we saw a while ago, one needs a new wire sword, which I will do in the fullness of time. I don't know about the half-barrel/bucket, which could be from anywhere, it looks like the kind of thing toy circuses make elephants or tigers stand on!

 

The Rene Fisher originals, which I think I called Guilbert (on advise) when we looked at them last time, I think we saw them all then except the Milady character figure, but in the meantime I had picked-up a third lot, which hasn't been Blogged yet, so we'll revisit Athos, Porthos, Aramis and d'Artagnan!

 

Bad rust on the two either end's swords, while an unstable red paint will need stripping which could lead to a repaint, but they are duplicate figures, so it'll be fun to give them a less toy-like countenance!

Thanks to all for everything last month; Peter Evans, Brian Carrick, Trevor Rudkin, Adrian Little, Andreas Dittmann, Gareth Morgan and Michael Mordant-Smith.

H is for How They Come In - April I - Chris - Animals and Media Related

I've twined TV/Movie and animals in this post of Chris Smith's April donation to the Blog, and we'll start with the animals (and monsters!) as there are some very interesting items among them . . .

. . . starting with the hard-plastic giraffe at the back, in need of the liquid-poly vet - whom it has since been seen by! The only damage in the consignment, and probably courtesy of Royal Fail! It's cartoony but not a Lik Be (LB) or Colonial sculpt, as far as I know, it's also frangible polystyrene, but both Culpitt and Wilton carried 'styrene versions of the aforementioned animals, so I'm guessing a similar history for this chap - fun cake decoration for younger celebrants?

Two lovely dogs; one Airfix (? See forthcoming post) 'styrene flat, the other a chalky polyethylene sculpt of some quality, but a larger scale than the usual suspects, so probably a dolls-house set? The small deer will also return in a further post.

The kit giraffe is probably from a R&L circus premium, but could be Italian, they had several issuers of such stuff, while the sheep is Precepi/Nativity. The elephant is a US Cracker-Jack premium, I think, over here - Christmas cracker?

Which leaves a lovely owl in soft silicon-rubber and the grey horse; it is a copy of the Britains stage-coach/prairie-wagon horse I think, but scaled down and used with cake-decoration carrousels/roundabouts/fairground gallops.

Ahhhh! "Gygax Monsters"! There will be a whole page on them in the fullness of time, and these are two of several from Chris while Peter Evan's has sent one or two over the years, but I have lots (you need lots as there are many variations!) including the LB 'minis', here we see 'Bulette' on the left and a swamp-gator who Gary Gygax ignored!

For now suffice to say, they aren't as rare as people would have you believe, and they definitely aren't worth the $400 that someone was paying for them a decade or so ago, indeed, as we saw a few years ago, thanks to Brian Berke; you can still find the ex-Holly mouldings in seaside kiosks now, but there have been many iterations!

I hope/believe, these are the sea-animals which accompany the Nabisco take on baking-powder divers, which are to be seen here (toward the end of the article), they aren't the plain colour of my pair of divers though, being all marbled to some extent and there's no obvious hole for baking soda to be packed in, just larger hollows, so maybe they sat at the bottom of the vessel being used, or floated above the bobbing divers?

Assuming I'm right (never assume! Heehee) they are an extraordinary things to find in a box of mixed chuck-outs!

Disney's Pocahontas, Santa' rocking on a double-bass, a Coca-cola polar pilot, Roy 'Chubby' Bear "Yeah, but those fockers was Messerschmitts!" Boom Boom! and a Kinder Gnome make up the characterfull element!

She's not actually a superhero; 'gold lady' is DC's Lois Lane, I think from a fairly recent magazine part-work adult-collectable, we looked at the funny, semi-flat 'bat-bots' here and this silver one is both a new colour and a new pose!

While the otherwise quite typical eraser space-warrior type (yellow rubber) has wrap-around armour in polyethylene which is unusual? The Star Trek Worf is Playmates' take on Micro-Machines I think, while the other figure looks like one of the lesser Turkish or Spanish capsule toys - LZ or Maraja?

leaving this 'till last, it's fun! A Baywatch pick-up truck with muscle-bound hunk driving and puny sidekick in the passenger seat! Non-turning wheels suggest modern cake-decoration, and it must be 1980's/90's now as that craze is well-over, isn’t it, say it is . . . please!

I know! Some people loved it, I couldn't bear it, those fake tits of Pamela's looked like balloons! And how many believable story-lines can you get out of a strip of beach in Southern California? But lovely toy with two figures - cheers Chris!

Indeed; many thanks for all the above, especially the sea-creatures and the rack-toy robot! Full-combat Toy Soldiers next!

Next day - Chris reports it's Burger King 1987, and came with a similar speedboat and a quad-bike, I should have taken notes on base-marks before I sorted them away - similar note on the skateboards in the previous post.