T is for Two - Boxed Dinosaurs

Except that there are three boxes with seven animals so the 'T is for . . . ' trope doesn't really stack-up but you'll see what I mean! A big box from TXMaxx the other day, and two from 2017 and the now defunct Poundworld-Plus.

I also shot this shelfie in TKMaxx, about twice the size (of this morning's Poundland set) and five for a tenner they work out as less of a bargain, but still cheap and also reasonably sculpted and decorated, although a bit gapey-mouthed 'Chinasaur'! They're branded to NBC Apparel, which I think is also an in-house, phantom brand?

Top left to bottom right we seem to have; velociraptor, stegosaurus, tyrannosaurus rex, spinosaur and triceratops. That last one's a tad too babyish-looking!

We may have seen these, certainly we've seen other examples from the same multi-branded set of six models, and we saw some of the Poundworld-packed ones, but I don't know if I showed any from this sequence which I found in Picasa. Dated to the end of June (right) and beginning of July (left) 2017, so they may have been left out of other posts?

Triceratops and spiky-bastard-a-saur, they have been carried in two color-ways by at least four brands and in five or six packaging types(both sides of the pond) including pairs and trios, and would here (packaging has long gone) be branded to Toy Bank.

Other brands and known outlets are/were Henbrandt (singles in counter dispensers), Lollipop/LP (carded), Pounland/Funtastic (separately boxed) Out of the Blue (singles) all in the other - common -colour way, then TXMaxx (pairs and triples, brand-mark unknown) and these - both in the later paint-scheme.

A is for A Tail of Six Dinosaurs

Tail - tale - dinosaurs . . . never-mind! Brain sent a bunch of dinosaur shelfies the other day without knowing I had just bought another from the range in Poundland Plus, nor why I had bought it, and it's led to my digging out a few other images for a post which - if nothing else - is instructive of how the toy industry works at the bottom end!

These are they (Mr. Berke's shelfies, that is!); three dollars . . .  is what; one-eighty? Something like that! And for that money you can't complain, nicely blister-packed with backing-cards and a decent level of decoration, my complaint - voiced before now - is the rather obvious joins where separate mouldings are fused-together to give the impression of, or allow for poses which would otherwise have proven difficult or impossible with only undercuts.

By the 'other' LP; Lollipop Toys (or Brooklyn Lollipops Import Corp. as they call themselves!), there are six in the whole line, and you may have recognised one or two of them, as they have popped-up on the Blog in the past.

This is the range in its entirety, the upper shot being from Henbrandt's old catalogue, the lower shot from the back of the Poundland one I bought and Blogged a year or two ago. You can see that both companies were (are?) getting the same colour schemes, which also those carried by Brian's shelfie herd.

But, I'd already bought my 2nd 'Dippy', this time from Poundworld Plus, and now in a different scheme (right) to the [common] previous scheme, as we saw with the Funtastic one on the left; Funtastic being what the industry calls a 'phantom-brand' of Poundland, I tend to call them made-up brands or imagibrands!

The new one is by Toy Bank another phantom-brand . . . of the same group! This time the sub-branding on the box is 'Little Fossil Toys', which has to be added to Green Gecko and Pirate Monkey in the ever spiraling-upward list of cross-referenced 'brandlettes'!

Packaging - clockwise from top left - for Lollipop, Henbrandt and Poundworld Plus, note however, that the counter display carton from Henbrant's catalogue is wearing the logo for Zhong Jie Toys, a company already supplying Poundland (or was it 99p Stores? . . . Aaaaarrrrrhhhhh!) with wild animal models!

Remember my paint-tray-guilt-stupid-Brit-thing purchase the other month? Well, it's from the same range, in the same (older?) scheme; Out of the Blue, probably a contractor rather than a phantom, and while I can't remember the counter display, I bet it was the same as the Henbrandt catalogue shot . . .

. . . and I'll bet there are other contracted and phantom brands out there carrying these six rather good, usually very cheap, foamed-PVC (or similar) dinosaur models, indeed, I think I mentioned TKMaxx having sets of three about two years ago, with different graphical packaging! In fact I thought I'd taken a shelfie, but I can't find it so I may not have!

More dino's - later today.

S is for a Shed-load of Shelfies of Saurapod Sets in time for Santa!

Both Brian Berk and myself have been busy since August taking shelfies of Chinasaur Dinosaur sets, which have been gathering in a folder with a vague aim of doing something at Christmas in the back of my mind, this is that something, it's nearly Christmas . . . so!

Starting to recognise the different shelving in Brian's shelfies I think these will be found in Walmart, 'State-side? Largish-looking scale/size wise and nicely decorated; since the Chinese started finding such well preserved evidence in their sedimentary beds, toy makers (and dinosaur artists generally) have got more experimental in their decorating of them, particularly the larger models.

Although tending to use snakes and lizards for their guiding-influence, rather than birds, as they probably should, true reptiles being a separate branch of the taxonomic tree - I believe - from dinosaurs; the two groups existing side-by-side for hundreds of millions of years.

The back of the box has the sort of info-panel kids' love collecting, cutting them out and keeping safe in 'their' drawer or a little folder or something! But spot the deliberate (not!) mistakes!

Ten out of ten for Kid Galaxy from this critic! Four more; the . . . Monoceratops, Multiceratops (? Front-horn's too long for a Styracosaurus) is particularly striking I think.

Meanwhile I was over in TKMaxx taking shelfies as well, these are less well decorated (or 'traditionally' decorated - blast from an angled airbrush both sides and brushed highlights in a contrasting colour!) beasts from HGL (formally H Grossman) being sold here as a four or five lot (check-out the blue one's neck for a bonus!), but also available . . .

. . . as a proper old-school play set! Twenty-nine dino's and a tree . . . and a volcano!

The volcano being filled with mini-saurs and - despite picking-up a lot of mini-saurs in recent years - not instantly recognisable - so possibly new sculpts, or new to me anyway. I was tempted, as well; 16-quid makes them just over 50p each, cheap as a bag of junk at a toy show! But it's a 'big ticket' at one swoop and they'll be in charity shops for less eventually, so I'll wait!

Back to Brian's snapping and we have this set of 55-pieces, most of which also seem to be Chinasaurs, rather than scenics or flimsy transparent volcanoes! Also in Walmart and the count is in part arrived at with duplication, but even if it's 24 sculpts and a tree, it's gonna'be good value for younger relatives this Christmas!

These come with a mildly amusing story of uptight British mannerisms - I needed to buy a small paint-tray, and no one in town had one (well, Baker's would have but it was a Wednesday afternoon so they were closed!) that wasn't part of a large set, every other piece of which I had no yearning for!

The chap who's recently taken over the odd & sods shop did have one, but it was less than three quid and I only had my card on me, so feeling guilty as we walked back to the till, I grabbed these two as I felt I needed to 'make-up' the amount; terribly British nonsense, but there you are - by accident of birth!

Anyway, they were 1.99 each and took the total over six pounds so 'honour' was restored, or achieved or whatever the Brit's think they are doing when they unnecessarily buy stuff to feel better about buying stuff from someone who sells stuff - for a living!

The orange one seems to be the least well painted of the set of six we've seen some of before here, sold singly in Poundland (or 99p Stores before their demise) and shelfied in TKMaxx last year as a threesome (I've seen them elsewhere in ones or threes) this one branded to Tobar.

The other is new and gives us another tag; Out of The Blue, a German importer, how he ended-up sharing a shop-stock box with the Tobar is something only the stock-keeper knows!

Another shelfie from Brian, but this one taken in a British seaside town during one of his visits to the homeland, and it's a seaside classic, baggy ethylene sack with flimsy card header claimed by Kandytoys and all ready to populate a sandcastle! They look to be older sculpts from the 1970's or '80's getting another outing?

I'm not sure 'Go Back To 180 Million Years Ago' is quite the message our tourist destinations should be broadcasting in these Bwreaksit times though? Although, maybe they're preparing for the end of tourism, the shackling of horses to cars and the re-learning the art of living off swede or turnip soups' when not waving two fingers at 'Johnny-foreigner' over the Channel?

Finally, some vintage 'Frankosaur' action with this charming Stegosaurus I shot on Adrian's table at a resent Sandown Park toy fair. Starlux (for it is they) did some lovely sculpting for their prehistoric range, given the age they were made and this is a little peach, if a tad miserable-looking, but eating tree-ferns and cycads all day without getting eaten by something bigger can't have been a particularly joyous existence!