A is for Alien Partworks - Real Aliens, Really, Really Real Aliens, Everbody . . . They're Real, They ARE!

Yeah! Did I over-egg my belief-position on these in the title! I picked up five 'Aliens' at Sandown Park, which are interesting, and as non-articulated plastic figures, certainly deserve a place in the collection, but with sets on Star Wars and Star Trek running into the hundreds, not a bandwagon I'm ever looking to jump on, but, well, here's five!

 

Four of them are from 'The Real Alien Collection', from 1999, ladies and gentlemen, these are all real aliens from Alienville, Alieniania! Actually, it's worse, with long description of where they're 'really' from and who they are!

I just wonder why they always visit the dysfunctional drunk on a Tennessee trailer-park, a lonely Montana farmer, or the odd bloke with the Hapsburg Chin, in the council bungalow on the edge of a Norfolk village, rather than popping-down to Westminster, Buck' House or the UN General Assembly? Why do they frighten people retuning-home from the Pub, rather than frightening POTUS into behaving himself!

PVC figurines attached to a 'styrene or 'propylene base, they were mostly stuck in with sticky-pads, and for now I haven't decided whether I want to defenestrate them or leave them as they are, so imagery isn't brilliant, but you're hopefully getting the picture!

 

The Alien Collection flyer has the look of having been designed by next-door's unemployed teenager, in a Windows 98 version of poster-maker! But a quick perusal suggests they were quite serious in their delusions! There are, or have been, several alien-themed attractions or exhibitions in Blackpool over the years, including Tussauds, and clearly this lot was tied-into one of them!

 

I've had a quick hour of research into this set, and my conclusion is that only twelve figures ever made it to the light of day, that is, the eleven mentioned here as "Available now", and one further one, which probably 'broke the bank', and which I can't identify, as it's not too clear, without packaging, which is which, but it could mean I already have a quarter of those extant, to find!

 

'Followed for 23 minutes . . . '

At those speeds, it'll take them a billion-years to get home! 

 

One had come loose, so we can enjoy him, her . . . it, with detailed cosmic history!

 

Yeap, 'no longer in this form', but had the decency to let us know!

Hahahahahahaha!

'Four fingered hands' . . . no opposable thumb!

None of them, ever, seem to have opposable thumbs!

ET had opposable thumbs, and he was in a kid's production, FFS! 

 

A few years earlier, in 1996, Shadowbox also did a set, they seem to have managed about seven or eight figures, before folding, and took themselves slightly less seriously, including movie characters, like a 'man in black'. The fact that neither series went anywhere interesting, gives an idea of just how niche UFOlogy actually is?

And I say that as someone who has seen at least one UFO, but I'm a cynic and a rationalist, and I know that there will be a perfectly reasonable explanation for what I saw, which excludes all the above nonsense!

 

I do vaguely remember seeing some of these in the old Forbidden Planet shop in New Tottenham Court Road, back in the late 1990's, so they did everything they could, distribution wise, but there just wasn't the clientele?

 

And finally . . . . 

 

B is for Bachmann, Busch and Other Blister Cards

Box ticking some more of the smaller railway figure issuers, it doesn't look like they actually made them, and because they are both blistered I've added a couple of other blister shots including one from Jon Attwood, as we are near the end of these posts for now.

These are the sets I hid in the Sandown Park plunder post the other day, a seller had a mass of N-gauge stuff, obviously an estate-clearing lot, and among them were several sets of figures, of which I grabbed four samples, one each of the two Bachmann's, the Busch and a Hachette (below).

 

A couple of points to note are that Bachmann admit to getting them in Hong Kong, while Busch, not known for figures, being primarily a tree/scenic maker, obviously got hold of some too, but give the impression - by subtle omission - that they are German products! The other point is that while graphics are similar, there is a year or two between the two Bachmann sets, with the green 'Accessories' line one being probably the newer, the blue 'Trains & Buildings' one probably older.

 

The usual scans (of the HO range) from various Walther's catalogues. In recent years Bachmann Europe and/or Bachmann UK have used various figures in HO/OO - also in sets of six - bought-in from Preiser, or even commissioned from them, but by "Recent Years" I realise I am talking about twenty-odd years, and there have been various changes in ownership of different arms of the brand in that time which are not for here, now, but can be looked at another day.

 

The same seller had these HO figures in tow, from Hachette the French-based part-work issuer, and (from the talk of 'Craft knife and scissors' in the instructions) possibly part of a larger building kit, and I think it was from the 'Little Benton Village' part-work? I suspect they are whitemetal, but short of getting them out and scratching one, I can't call it for sure!

 

While Jon sent these shots as part of the wider contributions, a bit too big for HO/OO-gauge related models, we have looked at them before, and this is the one with the bin-man which confused me a few years ago, as a similar chap came with a bit lorry!

P is for Peter's Perfect Post-Christmas Parcel! 2 of 2

The other half of Peter's parcel, and in the order I shot them, as I was sorting them for the local TBS boxes, I have five stacks of the smaller cardboard 'produce' boxes which stack on the corners and have open tops and the odd slot/handhold in the ends, through which I can post things without taking the whole stack apart!

Three bigger animals, two makers? The cat's are similar plastic/sculpting, the girraffe is more sort of early-learning or infant-toy with a slightly cartoony look, but all useful and needing ID'ing one day!

 

Some medieval small-scale odds, I think we're looking at Revell's iteration of Accurate's Brit's on the left and something Itlaeri-Zvezda on the right, they'll go down the line to make up complete sets, from odd's, when I have the time!

 

Three Del Prado part-work figures from the Waterloo 'wargame', and a nice flat, probably modern in physical production, but from antique slates? The loader came apart as I was shooting them, which means we can look at how the parts go together!

I actually got the part-work for some time, a local shop kept getting a few in, for months after it was supposed to have gone subscription-only. In the end, I dropped-out, as I did the maths! But we will look at them in depth one day, it was about 20-years ago now?

 

Airfix bits and a Merit feather-edged fence-panel. Figures, kit bits and 'readymade' AFV parts/odds, it all has its place! The series I/II Land-Rover (from the Bristol Bloodhound set), looks a bit like my Uncle's Austin Gypsy did when I found it behind a barn, about ten years after I'd last seen it driving!

 

A very red sample of Poplar Plastic and Tudor Rose soft-platic Westerners, we're aiming for one of every colour on the Poplar's (unlikely, but you never know), and they always seem to be more Tudor Rose horses than riders, so all useful stuff!

 

Two for the spares box, a German parachute bag from Timpo and a small 'old school' dustpan or hearth-brush, probably from a cheap rack-toy doll's set, or budget Christmas crackers?

 

The saltier half of a pair of Friar cruets on the right, with some Kinder 'fidget-spinners'.

 

A sample of early British Khaki Infantry, they were a nice sample, but Royal Fail or Parcel Farce conspired to deny them a future of use, however they are unpainted and very clean, so could be a worthwhile sample, and will be kept for now, until the next big sorting of that sub-genre.

 

Likewise, this chap, who is not damaged in the post-production sense of the word, but is a short-shot moulding with a constricted, kidney-shaped base and short muzzle-tip, where cooling plastic failed to fill the cavity properly!

 

Many thanks to Peter for this latest parcel, especially at what is the quiet or 'down-season' in the hobby.

T is for Thunderbirds Are Gone!

In fact they went just over a year after they started, I'm referring to Thunderbirds Are Go, a magazine which became, quite quickly, a subscription 'partwork', but which failed at the first hurdle - lasting a year!

Blogged by Moonbase at the time, so I held-off on my own purchases, but I'd got in at the start and predicted in a comment over there that it would peter-out after a while, with lower-value gifts and/or Thunderbirds-stickered (or printed) generic novelties, which is pretty much what happened, with a secret-code message booklet, Parker's 'cockney phrase book' "Shall I do the Berkeley, Mairy Pop'uns?!" or a tuppence-worth of vac-form mask, of the Hood's face!

 

But the early issues ran through the vessels in a '1:no constant scale' size model, I think there was a larger T4, but I missed it, and it'll turn-up loose at some point, if there was, I'm absolutely sure about that!

 

Probably the nicest was the T5, Space Station for onanists, which came as a kit of pre-coloured parts with a small sticker-sheet and therefore had a lot of inbuilt value-for-money, easy to build, it would be useful for all that micro-space wargaming some indulge in? "That's not a moon, it's a pocket-money trap!"

The flying Stalwart! Based on the TV reboot, the vehicles aren't quite as bad as the execrable movie, but nevertheless, they ain't the originals either, so not sad to see them die, a story which was told at the time over on Down The Tubes;

 

https://downthetubes.net/dc-thomson-cancels-thunderbirds-are-go-magazine/
 

What I managed by way of a collection, the T1 and T3 are relatively unchanged so why fuck-about with T2, which was everybody's favourite? Except for the big girl's blouses, who liked FAB1! I don't know if there was a FAB1 in the . . . 14 (?) issues!

M is for More Eraserbots!

We've seen these before, more than once I think, but I had a lucky visit to a charity shop ages ago, and in clearing this stuff, found the folder, so, here goes . . .

The rider is a part-work, of substantial poorer quality than the Osprey/Del Prado stuff, or even De Agostini or Altaya, but I can never remember the name of them, Alexander, Cassandra? Something like that! This was issue 1 and is quite common, I think we've seen it before too! One of Napoleon's generals, I think someone said last time?

 

But it's the erasers which are the highlight here, and as they are contemporary, someone must have seriously rejected them, for them to end up in a charity shop . . . who doesn't like eraserbots?

 

One of them is a new colour I think, but I can't remember which one (can't remember much tonight!), and I think there is a fourth, green-suit one still to find?

N is for Nottingham Mafia

Which by now I'm sure you've worked out is my moniker for Games Workshop! It's not that I dislike them in the same way I dislike the management at Lego, and I love their products more than I love Hestair Kiddy Bricks.

But they are a bit of a cartel, and they do milk their more sycophantic followers (it's more than a fan-base, it's a cult!), and they have contributed to the inflationary drive of adult 'hobbying'. Still it's a successful strategy . . . hell, through last year's lock-downs their shares were giving better dividend returns than the best guilt-edged bonds!

Anyway, because they are self-aware enough of their failings to realise some people may have trouble investing fully in the 'franchise', all at once, at the start of the exercise, to - from time to time - issue card figures or scenic items in their magazines, to give you something to play-with/around, and here are a few of those figures.

The big blue 'Magnificent Sven' sheet came within White Dwarf magazine decades ago, I think, and you get 12 characters and a killer-wolf-dog-lion thing, all decorated in a cartoony style reminiscent of contemporary graphic novel stuff from the same era, you also get three figures and a couple of weapons to colour yourself . . . or use as wraiths!

The Lord of the Rings sheets use photographic images of someone else's professionally painted miniatures to encourage you to greater heights, they were 'army-builder' sheets in early issues of the part-work which were meant to be replaced by actual figures from later issues of the part-work.

While these four Orks (or whatever they are) are more recent, but I can't remember where/when I added them to the collection? I've probably got the details in the hand-written archive/manuscript notes and I suspect they were just taped to the cover of a White Dwarf in a little bag.

The three samples have different fixing systems, with Sven's mob and enemies being a  single sheet printed both sides with a fold-back base, giving a reversed L-shaped cross-section. The LotR and ork sets have two prints and two bases which can folded into an A-frame tent, or an upside-down T, depending on preference, the T however will benefit from a piece of scrap-card laminated to the base - dotted line - to provide the same rigidity/stability you get doubling-up the two layers on the A-frame.

T is for Two - Cantonieres . . . Cantinières . . . Canteniers?

Not to be confused with Cantonniers (two 'n's) who are road workers (on railways?) or Cantonnières who are the feminine type, but not necessarily female, just confused! Those flibbertigibbets with a barrel of booze who follow armies, anyway!

A real Picasa clearer, or more accurately Picasa sorter-out, as removing four images is a slow way of emptying the laptop, but it does unify two related items and gets them gone! The one having been hanging around since 2012, intended for another Blogger, but I never got his email and he seems to have stopped blogging now, the other a recent find?

This is the older one, I suspect a French piece (CGB Minot?), solid, 54mm and on a substantial base, she could just as easily be a home-painted casting of more recent origin (post-1960's), she's a useful paperweight if nothing else, but quite nicely 'drawn' and well painted in a 'toy soldier' style -  semi-matt though. I can't explain why, but she looks more Portuguese than French to me? However; I went with the tricolour for the frame-boarder!

Thanks to Adrian at Mercator Trading (link) for letting me shoot her . . . with a camera, seven years ago!

This one ought to be the easier for me to ID but it isn't! Del Prado did a part-work set over here 'Relive Waterloo' which may have had a canteen lady (I'm not falling for that mess in the title!) in the higher numbers (126 issues meant over 750-quid for the whole 'work'), but I bailed-out after about issue 15?

The card here is in Spanish or Portuguese (I don't pretend to know either, but can muddle through the context of a text; here - soldiers and strategy revisited (or revealed) in miniature?), and while Del Prado did other sets similar to the Waterloo set - possibly from the website - in France (Austerlitz) and maybe Spain and deAgostini, Altaya, (also Spanish) Atlas (mostly Corgi products?) Eaglemoss-AMC, Hachette, SC Content Media (Hungary, using Ocean in China) and others (that US/Australian one) have issued figures as part-works in various sizes, I can't place this one.

Also she's a little closer to a 15mm scale (or HO's 18mm?), even for a young woman (as you can see from the Airfix pilot, even the pony/mule is a bit small), so - does anyone know the origin of this small, whitemetal, carded for a part-work, moustachioed canteen lady? I shot it last month, but it may have been in the storage-lot I did for RTM, in which case - probably dating from the 2010's or earlier?

T is for Toy Fair 2019 Reports - Amerang - Solido

Slowly getting through the London Toy Fair reports, and still with Amerang, another offering from who (whom, which?) was a rather interesting development, if now getting a bit boring . . . having previously be issued as partworks under various brands in the former Soviet Bloc & Europe (and Australasia - I think?) as well as being 'cleared' through The Works a few years ago!

Clearly not cleared thoroughly enough . . .

. . . as they are now appearing under Solido's banner, shipped-in to the UK by Amerang, good news if you like AFV's, excellent news is you're building war-gaming armies and feel you don't have the prerequisite modelling skills?

On display was a selection of WWII AFV's and aircraft, along with a nice Korean War Patton I and Vietnam-era Huey 'Slick'. The full range (as seen before) has more modern-era stuff in the line-up, but then the aircraft are from a previously different/separate part work series (currently still running in the UK I believe (forthcoming post - if I ever find time!)), so I'm guessing Solido have chosen the more popular subjects from both ranges to maximise sales and minimise further 'clearance'!

Basically - some manufacturer in China has developed exquisite ranges of AFV's and aircraft in a constant 1:72nd scale, with fine plastic detailing on die-cast bodies - which rival the best Corgi has to offer, and they are selling them (as contract-manufacture) to anyone who wants them, and about six brands/publishers, so far, have taken-up that opportunity. Except . . . of cource . . . it's at least two factories; as we saw here.

Consequently they are not rare, and those eBay bottom feeders who bulk-purchased at 2 or 3-quid from The Works and them put them on the feebleBay for 6, 8, or 10-smackers-a-pop, should be taken outside and shot for the black-marketeers they are! [Not so 'far left' now, am I James? Seems I can be as right wing as you and your Mosque floor-plan researching, gun-loving bred'rin!]

Panther 'Coelian', an experimental vehicle which saw little or no service, hence the unpainted, surface-rusted turret. Like Flak-panzer IV 'Kugelblitzen', 'Maus'es' (mice? Misen? Misen to picen!) and E100's, there are X¹⁰-many more in war games armies than ever left the factories it's all a bit silly, really! Wouldn't stop me buying one though - ah, yes; the hypocrisy of the pink monkeys!

Safer ground with a Patton tank - painted by Dr. No's henchmen it seems! Didn't save the Gloster's did it . . . fussa-russa!

But a nice model of a machine which - where previously issued in this size - has always been highly inaccurate, whether Japanese pull-back or clockwork's imported by Riko or the Airfix 'readymade' which couldn't decide if it was an M '46, '47 or '48 or what it's turret should look like (despite trying two designs!) in the 1960's or later Hong Kong stuff based on Blue Box's effort copied by Rado, et al in the 1970/80's . . . hell - they still turn-up; horrible little squat-lumps of wasted polyethylene!

Lovely! What can you say, better that Airfix, Hasegawa or Fujimi, that's for sure, and the fact that the anhanger (trailer) tractor behind has a different camouflage and no tilt, while the gun-tractor has a full tilt (apparently in two parts), suggests multiple purchases could be cross pollinated to quickly produce a fleet of (6?) different-looking vehicles.

Hugh's Aircraft Corporation Utility Helicopter 1 . . . B! I think this is actually painted-up as a South Vietnamese airframe of the type thrown into the sea in large numbers at the end, as US Aircraft Carriers and amphibious assault ship's decks filled with the fleeing regime's hardware? Loving the tiger-stripes!

In the background is an AMX, is it painted for Chad or South Africa or somewhere like that? And if you're thinking it has limited use on the war game's table, I can assure you the 3rd Fantasian Motor Rifle Division had a heavy reconnaissance regiment requiring 9 of them on the table!

A couple more in the box, I NEED a Protz! I think the Flak-panzer IV 'Wirblewind' is the same model Matchbox branded about 15 years ago, which would make them the first to carry these models (albeit as a small and hard to find range), long before Altaya (or was it Eaglemoss?!) et al, and further suggest that at least one of the contract manufacturer's may be (or have been) part of the Universal Group?

War Master from Solido via Amerang, ex-everybodyelse! Get 'em when you see 'em or you'll be paying double on evilBay in a few years time! Or - as they aren't that cheap anyway - wait and see if they are churned through The Works or TKMaxx in a year or two - somewhere in the Far East, there's a warehouse the size of an aircraft-hanger (or two); full of 'em!!

News, Views Etc . . . Naughty Part-works

A couple of bits of news concerning part-works, one new, one old and one borrowed, but nothing blue, however; the 12,000-worder is still in edit, I'll see what I can do 'blue' there! In the light of the recent Panini UK agent's World Cup Sticker Album tribulations, the first story is the more interesting, concerning - as it does - cost.

Hachette

This global part-work issuer was castigated last week by the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) for failing to make clear that their current 'Build a London Routemaster Bus' part-work would run for 130 issues and cost consumers a total of more than £1,150.

The company said it had made the cost clear (on its website), but the ASA was having none of it and banned the TV-ad' promoting the publication, as the TV-ad' was considered to be misleading.

The real news here, as I see it; is why it has taken 30+ years to point out the bleeding obvious?

Because it requires an actual complaint, from a named complainant, willing to appear as a witness, before most modern watchdogs are able to act at all, under their - quite deliberately - ham-stringing Thatcherite-Raganomic remits, which put business (not 'big' business; all business) ahead of natural justice, or the rule of law.

It's not enough to know there are snake-oil salesmen, but to have to find villagers willing to paint their houses red, to scare them off!

Atlas Editions

It's not the first time the ASA has acted recently; they also upheld a complaint against Atlas Editions UK Ltd., back in August of last year, again 'misleading' sales techniques were fingered by the beak, only this time it was the website considered out of order, not the media publicity.

Although - It seems they are serial offenders as a well as serial issuers!

Other part-works are Available

These have also been in the media recently and from the left we have:

A set of Zippo lighters, never to light anything? A 'Merrythough' Bear which costs more than all the bears, rabbits &etc of my entire childhood! Paddington coins and a DC/UK thing, I would write more but this weeks got off to a busy start and I'm all over the place!

Close-ups of the important bits, in the bear's defence; he is rather smart! But who would want a whole display of rather hideous Zippo's, identical to the other 9,000 (that's; NINE . . . Thousand) sets? Madness!

D is for Die-cast Ducks

A quick comparison between the two recent D.U.K.W. amphibious 6x6 cargo-trucks variously issued by De Agostini and Altaya (no tilt), Eaglemoss and some Russian outfit (tilt and rope-fenders), they are both a mix of materials on a die-cast body/shell.

I would have scored the Russo-Chinese (Ocean Metal Factory) one the better of the two (marginally) if it hadn't come sans one wheel! The underside detailing is better on the Russian import, but marred by the base-mounting screw-holes, and the provision of a glass-effect windscreen is a plus, but the DeAg,/Altaya version has the nicer nose (with separate tools/snorkel) and cab-interior, so you takes your money (the Russian one wins! £2 in The Works!) and makes you choice!