R is for Real Rack Toys!

Possibly concerned by the lack of rack-toys in Rack Toy Month here at Small Scale World, Peter Evans and Brian Berke both sent me rack toy images on the same day, earlier in the week just gone, and here they are! There are some more in the queue, and I'll try to get them out this week, by holding the PW show-report stuff 'till September; welp - better late than never!

This was the one from Peter, and he's kept one for me, so we'll have a closer look at it another day, for now, suffice to say they are Britains Deetail copies, in the same vein as those from 'H', Webb's Supertoy, or Kwong Wah, and something we will have to properly sort-out one day! The accessories are cloned from the much-licenced Crossbow & Catapults game.

20-11-2024 - Now here and in the queue, issuer is Arty & Mell S.L., of Madrid.

 

This is probably the most useful one from Brian, imported by JMC Allstar, and the picture on the back shows even more in the range, not least a very useful-looking HO-compatible building of the lineside/railway type (top left of the lower picture), some useful scenics and a towed artillery piece in a very 1:32nd-compatable size, taken from New Ray I think?

 

More aimed at infants, but construction vehicle collectors may be interested?

An oddity;  from a Xinleyang it says 'Fruit Cash Register', but contains an assortment of doll's furniture and a small, lilac, fantasy fort, with a Funko-style/headed doll! Artwork is all a bit retro with a Strawberry Shortcake vibe!

There's a fish, crab and lobster!

Novelty figural, magnetic puzzle.

The rest are from Hunson (and JPW/OKK), who haven't had a new entry in the tag list for a while now; Brian pointed out that it's been a while since he's found new Rack Toys to show us (but in fact ha has sent a few in recent donations).

 

The farm and wild animals, along with the unicorn (a My Little Pony rip-off?) are quite juvenile/cutesie sculpts, although the muntjac (?) and baby elephant both look passable, however, the sea life set appears to have more realistic mouldings overall, which, if that genre is your 'thing' should be a must for the wants list, if you haven't found them yet.

 

Many thanks to both contributors for these, and they are all out there, now, somewhere, it's just a matter of tracking them down, in a market that seems to have little place for them these days. I will try and get a sea-side visit in, over the next few weeks to see what can still be found there, as Brian had some success in that direction a few years ago?

F is for Football

I'll let you have 'soccer' if you're American, Australian or Irish, but there's no excuse for the rest of you! Brian B sent these the other day, he's previously sent us the Baseball players from the same range and possible another set - American footballers or basketballers but A) I can't find them on the dongles, B) I may be getting confused with the big tubs he also sent and C) the other sports are illustrated on the card, so it may be a false memory!

No matter; these are rather nice-looking and would appear to be ideal for jointing current set of cake decoration footballers we've seen here a few times now; size-wise. Five aside - four players and a goalie, but you'd have to remove a few of the balls _ think three of them have a ball, it's like a warm-up!

From the JPW/Hunson pairing, and like some of their other stuff claimed by OKK Trading of China, although Hunson are absent from the sticker this time, they were carrying the previously seen baseball set.

U is for Universal, Super-powerful, Superhero Heroes!

I don't normally carry Action figures here, but when we have them, and especially when they are contributions, they will find a place on Small Scale World as they have a place in the small-scale world. Sometimes that will be on the A-Z Blogs (which I've been working on in the background), and that was where these chaps - from Brian Berke - were headed until it seemed there was enough in the Spandex Leotards folder for a small season!

Also I can't be too snobbish about one aspect of the hobby 'tree' when I'm as likely to Blog Christmas-tree decorations or bubble-gum premiums the next day! Different strokes for different folks!

We have seen one of these before, in the Firefighter 'mini-season' back near the start of the year, but along with the firefighter was these Universal Hero figures, all of which could double for both Ninja warriors (with a can of black spray-paint) or Mexican Wrestlers!

Larger sets come with three figures and a helmet/mask, no prize for guessing who that's supposed to represent! Ten accessories include cats-claws, a kebab sword (?) a Katanga, three throwing stars, two odd-looking helmets and a truncheon with Arab-blade at one end and knuckle-duster at the other, which must be the oriental martial-arts equivalent of a Johnny Seven 'One Man Army'!

These two were donated to the Blog by Brian earlier in 2016, the fire fighter was mentioned above, but he came with another take on Captain Red-White-&-Blue! He gets to chose from a pair of swords or throwing stars.

Close-up of the same figure, there's not a lot to add, these are branded to OKK Trading and imported into the 'States by JPW International, I have seen them in the cheapie shops here, but not studied them closely.

LP/Lollipop Toys (who imported the Silvercorn sets) has upgraded theirs to 'Super Powerful' while having them made in a more Ninja-like colour of plastic! With those sandy breast 'plates' it's like they are trying to be heroes in a half-shell too!

That's because half of all brand-recognition is visual familiarity, the colouring of TMNT's being as distinctive a brand-mark as the name, or the shells! You'll notice from the box-art that these are available with a range of familiar-looking eye-masks and come in other shades of green (like TMN Turtles!).

A busy parent will see the colouring, the whacky bike, the two 'bad guys' on the other side of the card and buy these; then, when Junior kicks-off that they're not TMNT's, the parent (thinking on the hoof and lying like a banker) will tell them that maybe the Turtles were busy and recruited some humans to help!

You may have noticed that the first figure had light-up eyes? Well, so does this one and with the same card imagery is clearly from the same place, but is now a Samurai . . . yet looks like a Ninja! He also comes with a full set of accessories, a shield and two helmets - greedy!