R is for Rack Toy Round-Up - North America - Three is Supernumerary

More rack toy shelfies from Brian Berke, he found all these in Dollar Tree I think, and all figural, with 'Action', stretchy and 'Solid' types to suit most tastes!

 

Wall Walkers, unusual, in being solid, swivel-waist figures, with the sticky 'walking' compound attached as blobs to hands and feet, rather than the more usual form of an all-sticky figurine!

 

Although not a bendy, this guy looks like a perfect foil for the stretchy astronaut we saw a couple of months ago from Keycraft!

 

Generics? Their names all begin with 'M'!

 

Another of the Power Ranger's we saw the black one of, in a previous post from Brian.

 

Disney!

 

I'm not sure how this would work as a Yo-Yo, and I've tried to avoid PJ Masks and Paw Patrol here, but the longer they remain popular characters, the more likely they are to creep into the content from time to time! And I don't know anything about them - are they some male version of Power-Puff Girls?

 

This would find a place in the collection; appears to be a sculptural solid? There's a lot of adults buying toys these days, more for lifestyle signalling/decoration, than pure collecting, and this sort of thing is very much aimed at them, for a mantle or windowsill, or a display cabinet in the hall Monster High!

 

Three-inch, four-inch? Look out GI Joe's, Barbie is looking for a husband and she has expensive tastes!

 

Peppa . . . removed from Douyin (China) due to her association with 'gangster' subcultures and the creation of subversive memes!

 

Many thanks to Brian for all these, there's more to come, probably two more posts, so nicely inside Rack Toy Month, while I think the Gygax Monsters will slide into September! 

M is for Micro Toy Box

I know one or two other people have covered these either on Blogger or elsewhere, and, to a certain extent, that is the nature of covering new or current production, but that doesn't mean they don't need to go here, if only as a box-ticker!

I only became aware of these when they were on clearance at Aldi, about a year-and-a-half ago, and bought these three, at about a fiver each, as they all had at least one figure! And I had intended to leave it there; a fun sample.

 

This is the Rock'Em Sock'Em Robot (originally a Marx toy, but for many years owned by Mattel), reduced to about 25mm! The green one being a 'common' item in the set, the red adversary was also available as a 'rare', and I think I did end-up with one, but we'll get on to that!

 

Under the card you get four more 'blind' toys, each actually in a blind bag, so no cheating, but a mountain of waste on a dying planet? I'm guessing the line didn't do that well, as in some jurisdictions, window sets of 10, 15 or 20 items were issued, where most (6,10 or 14) were unpacked and visible, with only a few (4, 5 or 6) 'blinded' behind a graphics card.

 

The three top/visible items in that first purchase. about a dozen of the items in the first series were figural, and most had a balance or 'oppo', but I guess the original idea was not to get them out and add them to your Airfix soldiers, but keep them as minis!

One of the weirder aspects of the Aldi ones was that the insert card contained instructions on how to reverse the card so you could use the tubs as a unitary display system; a stack of little clear cabinets!

This being on the outside of the insert. But, "Hold on?" I hear the brighter of you asking, there's a side missing anyway, why would you need to turn in, to hide the artwork? But then you'd be displaying the instructions for the display faff, on the two wings, so you'd need to fold them out of the way too, and . . . and . . . it really doesn't make much sense? Not only that, but I think the point was that the blank side was supposed to have a sticker on it, hence 'turn' and 'reverse'?

 

In the event, they put stickers on all four sides, not only that but A) on the inside faces of the tub, and B) the type of paper stickers which will be a bugger to remove without a lot of effort, mess and the intervention of a solvent? The whole thing was a nonsensical daftness which clearly hadn't been thought through, or executed properly, by anyone in design, marketing or the art department?

 

The blind bags themselves give no clue as to the contents.

 

As it happened, they were then - in the run-up to Christmas '22 - further reduced to something like £2.50, to clear the stillage for the next bargain, and sorting through them to remove those which had been raided, I bought the lot! As a result, I had a fair few duplicates, not least these Hot Wheel cars (also a Mattel brand), so I 'unboxed' some!

 

Which revealed also, another odd aspect of the 'stacking' instructions - three different box designs which didn't stack between designs, and with no lids, didn't really stack at all, with or without reversed card inserts, or removed stickers??? Actually 'stacking' like empty yogurt-pots - inside each-other!

Barbies, board-games, bears and other recognisable brands of our childhood were included in the series, and this is the contents of another tub. The board-games and other - originally closed-box - toys were represented by simple stickers around small polymer tiles.

 

A couple of the tubs went on the scanner, with dubious results in the 'success' field!

Contents of another tub, stacking hoops from Little Tikes (now MGA Entertainment), a bucket & spade, a Barrel of Monkeys (Lakeside-Milton Bradley-Hasbro), a rocking horse and an early Nerf gun. The monkeys are no more than about 8mm at the longest line.

 

The full line of the first series, I think, in the end, I managed to get everything except a Magic 8-Ball, but I ended up with a lot of tat, and while I meant to take more shots of the mini toys, they ended-up going to storage, and will have to wait for another day, but there's plenty on the Internet for those whose 'research' consists of hoovering up other peoples efforts.

 

And while I was relieved to get one or two Skeletors for my dozen-or-so He-Men, I was gutted when friend of the Blog, Tom Clague, posted his trio (with Teela) on Faceplant and alerted me to a second series!

And - of course - now I have to get the 'army men', who look to be marginally larger than the monkeys!

This second series, like the Horrible History figures from Worlds Apart, seem to have gone straight to a few dealers, suggesting that you need to know where the good trade-auctions are, if you want to get this stuff as a year-round earner, in your evilBay or Etsy shop! And with another Nerf and a Pepper Pig, some more modern brands are in there.

 

Branded to Super Impulse USA, but, with both Hasbro and Mattel to the fore as representations, licensing must have been a nightmare!

H is for How They Come In - March to July!

A couple of Charity shops have re-opened, one has already gone, is cleared-out and being decorated by the landlord while the rest are still closed (and dumping tons of stuff straight into their skip-bins), but I managed to grab a few bags of plunder earlier this week for the first time in months, so we have an H is for . . . post!

Four bags, the larger bread-basket they were in had room, so I suspect a feebleBay bottom-feeder had beaten me too it, the shop opened last Monday, I got there this Tuesday, so I wasn't expecting much and was happy with what I got - four-quid all-in, can't knock it?

Contents of the four bags laid-out in absolutely no order whatsoever beyond vague morphing of themes!

Not looked at below; a couple of Pepper Pig types, probably from kids' magazines, four Ardman Animation figures, one or two of which may be Phidal, an unmarked Soma-like rubber builder, two Russ Berrie trolls (late type cereal premiums?), a clean Crescent Indian,  a handful of Hing Fat pirates and a farmer with a huge pitch-fork!

Another! This one is turned to the right, or glancing to the left depending on your point of view, but it's another! You, loyal readers, have watched this sub-collection growing, by accident, almost in real time!

His flesh is purpler than the previously seen examples, and his hat brim has gone the way of all flesh (and hat brims!), but that's a simple matter of cutting a washer of black art-paper/cartridge paper and slipping it on, the flat board at the back has survived, if a little dog-eared, so stiffening with super-glue and he'll be right as ninepence!

You'll also notice I've touched-up his chips with a black-marker between the overview picture and this one. That's two officers and a trooper now.

I think these (Marx Disney figures) are worth the whole four pounds? Neither has any damage, despite some thin or delicate parts although both are dirty and a bit paint-chipped. The plastic is not the chalky stuff of my unpainted Swansea ones, and I wonder if these aren't some of the first mementos to be brought back from the original Disneyland Park in California which opened in 1955.

The state of them (tatty) but also quality of them (no damage) suggests they may have been in a cabinet or on a shelf somewhere, but regularly taken out/down and loved? They'll clean-up a bit and were a real treat to find in a bagful of shite!

The four teddy bears are waiting for dark to fall, and they are going to give that modern Disney shit, sorry; pooh, a new [old] nose! Three 'in my pockets' (MEG?), one Disney squeaker/pet toy (?) and an unknown happy-looking chap who can be a pencil-top, but actually has a larger cavity?

New colour-way for the collection on the Deetail, and a Supreme for Toy Major, imported by Tiger here, hard to believe they are 25-odd years old now. I suspect the Deetail is a newer one from the 2000's re-issues?

The really quirky stuff, two wooden figurals (cat and rabbit) made from turned balls with felt ears, and a plastic cartoon cat, they all have a place in the sorting boxes! Hopefully, there will be more plunder now the Charity shops are opening-up again, but a lot of it is going in the bin in the meantime.

News, Views Etc . . .Regular Round-up

Usual, general collation of bits and pieces from the inbox, the national press and further afield, with a few links of things you may find interesting, or consider worth visiting.

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New Model Navy

In the 'i' on Monday the 22nd of May, there was an interesting editorial article/'infomercial' about how in 1667 our then Master Shipwright, one Peter Pett, in the panic of a Dutch attack up the River Medway decided that as he couldn't save the real vessels (all tied-up and crewless under the orders of Charles II while he negotiated the end of the second Anglo-Dutch war), he ought to save the exquisite models, which showed how to construct the 'new' Navy's vessels.

One of the saved models

Those who have visited the Maritime Museum in Greenwich (pronounced 'grenn-itch' - for my foreign visitors!) in the past will know just how exquisite they are. Anyway; long-story, short - the saved models and the tale behind them is being told in an exhibition 'Breaking the Chain' at the Royal Chatham ('chat-um') Dockyards until the 3rd September if you're looking for something to do with the kids over the holidays.

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General News

On the 25th June a stationary chain called Smiggle has announced plans to increase its workforce as sales increase, but not to open new stores - yet. I mention it therefore only because I don't know the chain (big cities?), but it may well prove to be a source of new or different erasers, pencil-tops and novelties, and we like that sort of stuff here!

Our glorious err . . . not quite leader (yet?) 'gettin' down wi' da' kids' during the recent election campaign, I was struck by the toy which seems remarkably un-different (is that a word?) from stuff companies like Tudor Rose were chucking-out 40 years ago! ♪♫"We'll-keep the yell-ow truckroll'ing"♫♪! That's it . . . you can read the rest later, off you go to work now - humming the anthem of revolution, my work here is done for the day!

The Hornby story rumbles-on with further press releases on the 23rd and 27th of June and the 5th of July, all concerning the management's urging of shareholders to reject the mandatory takeover-bid by Phoenix Asset Management - itself a major shareholder and the group who's management coup failed a few weeks ago.

The Stanly Gibbons story also continues to make the money-pages, with an approach by private equity firm Disruptive Capital, following the failures of Gibbons' own efforts in the last couple years, and of the plans of recent months.

Further news also on the Go story with the computer AlphaGo beating the current reigning world champion (Ke Jie) for a second time, the human claimed the computer was playing "Like the God of Go"! Once they are truly smarter than us, they will identify us as THE major threat to the planet's future.

Rod Stewart, yes the crooning popster; collects Scottish toy soldiers (and model trains!), so if you're a dealer with a particularly fine sample of Scots, or 'Highlanders', might be worth a try getting in touch with his PR people, you may be sitting on a Christmas bonus - if you know what I mean!

Poundstrecher (an occasional source of useful clearance toys) is in sales talks as it struggles with the slowly gathering Brexit recession - as we haven't recovered from the last [Banking] recession, that'll be fun!

Mattel have announced a whole bunch of Ken Dolls, including one with a 'man-bun' and another with corn-rows, I'm not exaggerating when I say we are in the end of days; Barbie's going to an gang-bang! Although the six CGI'd models in the 'i' newspaper on the 21st of May all looked mildly demented and incapable of satisfying Barbie without bursting into tears and needing therapy.

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Toys in the media

This has been used to advertise the Guardian's jobs edition in recent weeks, a CGI of a table football team which manages to cover every base as far as political correctness is concerned, well; it's the Guardian, you'd expect nothing less!

Tim'Maaaay!

Paul Morehead - editor of Plastic Warrior magazine -sent us this from PW Towers the other day, it's a whole battle! You can't beat 'Army Men' in articles, proper reading!

The downside of polymers in the environment was highlighted in this article in the 'i' a week ago - more here: Seafieldview Blog

Lego seems to be a main offender, but you can see here that Airfix and Hong Kong are not far behind, with Matchbox and Kinder both contributing - you may love this stuff, I may love this stuff, but this stuff will have to end. We must either find the strength ('good sense'!) to make these toys out of short-life, bio-degradable, vegetable-based, pseudo-polymers, or go back to wood and metals.

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Pepper Pig

Two Pepper Pig stories were left off the last 'News, Views' (buried under other stuff!), one being good news (if you're a Pepper Pig fan or a corporate bastard) in that Entertainment One (owners of PP rights) announced it was to produce 117 new episodes and had signed new licensing deals.

The other was also good news (if you're a hater of Pepper Pig or an anarchist) as share-values dropped 22% in Entertainment One after the Canadian-owned, British registered firm took a £47-million spending-hit on global restructuring and the investment announced in the other story - easy come, easy go, it's only money!

Lego's Bid for World Domination

Lego have announced that Merlin Entertainment will be opening another Legoland Discovery Centre, this time in Birmingham's Barclaycard Arena building next year, construction has started.

In a separate story, Lego are to work with Mencap the disability charity to find employment for learning-disabled people.

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Publishing

In mid-June Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl overtook Harry potter to regain number-one spot in the top 10 books for children list, suggesting the decline of pottermania is acelerating apace.

Under the headline 'Tolkien's Lord of the Wins' daily free-sheet The Metro reported the other day that his family have settled a law suit with Warner Brothers.

Obituaries

Still on publishing - obituaries this time sadly include Michael Bond, the creator (finder surely?) of Paddington Bear, while Grotbags actress Carol Lee Scott, Geoffrey Bayldon: Catweazle and Andy Cunningham of Bodger the Badger fame have all sadly passed.

The news yesterday that George A. Romero has gone too means that it's not just our childhood which is being buried but - increasingly - our teenage-years too.

Health and Safety

Not something I normally consider or think about, but a little girl died in April after swallowing one of those tiny little coin-like batteries, not some tragic suffocation as you might think, but because the stomach-acids break into the batteries, the acid's of which are far more powerful, and can do fatal damage, worth a thought if you have younger children. The lithium-cell was from an electronic car key-fob, but similar batteries are in a lot of toys these days, Lego mini-fig LED torches spring to mind.

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A Few Links

This is one of the more amusing things I've seen recently related to toy soldiers

https://drawception.com/game/xQ9WeCwkqb/toy-soldiers-vs-barrel-of-monkeys/

Looks like fun if you can get there

http://www.southflorida.com/theater-and-arts/art/sf-walter-wick-miami-lowe-museum-20170710-story.html

This is a salutary lesson for arrogant people like you-know-who, more comments in three days than any five Toy Soldier blogs get - together - in a week!

https://archive.nyafuu.org/toy/thread/6326452/#6415927

Best pictures ever of one of my favourite toys

http://toyconnect.blogspot.co.uk/2017/07/ideal-globemaster-flying-boxcar.html

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Finally - Best Bath Bomb ever!

News, Views Etc . . . S is for Seasonal Stuff

Part two-of-two looks at the Easter half-term stuff, a few recent minor purchases and a couple of other bits.

Movies

Films likely to have an effect on toy production, coming to a cinema near you in the next few weeks (or days) include a Smurfs cartoon; The Lost Village, a live action Power Rangers movie and (fancy that - with all the other news stories surrounding the brand recently?) a Pepper Pig feature 'My First Cinema Experience' is in cinemas from the 7th April; a hour's collection of 5-minute cartoons stitched together with sing-along sections. For older kids the Japanese manga-made-flesh Ghost in the Shell looks likely to produce merchandise - if it takes off?

Easter Events in the UK

Kew Gardens are running a Moomin Adventures 'Fun for all the family' thing from the 1st to the 17th April.

Moomins are also to be found staring in the Southbank Centre's Adventures in Moominland, now extended to August 2017

Also on London's South Bank is an exhibition run by artofthebrick on DC Superheroes . . . modelled in Lego.

The Acton Depot Museum of Transport for London (TfL) are having a double open day on April 22nd/23rd with rides on a live-steam garden railway.

Sticking with railways; the Epping Ongar Railway have an egg hunt on their full-size, steam line with Bertie Bunny putting in an appearance!

Kenwood House (Hampstead Heath) are also running an EasterEgg Hunt, with kings, Butlers and Roman Centurions helping kids solve the clues.

While the Wetlands Centre in Barnes have an Easter Giant Duck Hunt, staring Dusty Duck - also 1st-17th April, with an additional Celebrity Dusty Duck Trail from 1st April until the 21st May; Michaela Strachan seems to be involved too, so I may go myself!

Further afield Willows Activity Farm in Hertfordshire (St Albans) are running an Easter Eggstravaganza event from 1st-17th with a Peter Rabbit theme.

Other egg-hunts are being held at London Bridge (Saturday) and in Battersea Park

Museums

Rachel Whitread (the first female Turner Prize winner back in 1993) has revealed a permanent exhibition called 'Place (Village)' in the V&A's Museum of Childhood. In situ since the 25th march, it consists of 150+ vintage doll's houses, all lit from within, but empty "...evoking haunting memories and melancholy", arranged on a bank of shelving like a hill-side village.

Notting Hill's Museum of Brands (Ladbrooke Grove) is also holding an egg hunt over the half term holiday.

The Tower of London is also gearing-up for an event; the 'Go Medieval at the Tower' festival, which will be running over the bank-holiday weekend - 29th April/1st May - with knights sword fighting, archery with crossbows and other attractions recreating the world of warfare from 1445.

The National Army Museum in Chelsea (the old Duke of York's barracks) is re-opening after a three-year refurbishment/upgrade.

Recent Minor Purchases

Charity Shops

This was a 50p bag in a charity shop in Basingrad the other week, nothing exceptional and we've looked at the Cherilea chickens already, but a full set of 4 Corgi calves and rather tatty B&S (Barratt & Sons) giraffe were worth 50p - each!

The yellow camel is another of those tinny, dense, propylene-like versions we looked at when I did the premium animals (seven or eight years ago?) so there are definitely at least four origins of them including the US originals. The green one is a Kellogg's bog-standard one and by comparing the forelimbs it's easy to see that the harder ones are copies, not the same moulds being re-used.

Another Torres bull - joined by Matchbox bulls and Blue Box mini-cattle - I have a whole stadium of them now! The set of three HK rabbits have good paint and the Britains medieval charger must be worth another 50p? As - indeed - should be the Timpo farm's heavy-horse.

The two vinyl bears are modern 'CHINA' marked in the same vein as the Henbrandt we've been looking at. The goat's nice but the two HK sheep look to contain bee's DNA! The rest's mostly damaged shrapnel, or common/HK shite, but for 50p you can't fault it!

These were from the Animal Charity shop also in Basingrad a couple of months ago now; the smiley is also a bendy toy (yes! Another one!), but he's so small he's a bit stiff and I could only bend him forward a bit and slightly move his arms up.

The Bear's resin, but more anthropomorphic that the 'teddy' designs of the other resin bears we looked at last year, so she will go with similar stuff in storage eventually, unless I can put a brand to her.

Capsule Toys

As we're looking at smiley's; these blobs were 20p 'gum-ball' capsules from a corner shop on Friday last, same machine but different eggs/packages, the pale one with the cruder face being branded to CBG Bv. (Brabo) of the Netherlands, the other one to FIAM of Turin, Italy. I'm sure they both come from the same Chinese factory, just different contracts/different batches, I'm equally sure they also conform to the previous versions seen here at Smallscaleworld, I'll try not to test them to destruction!

What also set these two apart from the other 2 or 3 we've looked at in the past few years and which links them together, is that while carrying different branding, they have both been in the machine for so long they have 'stuck like that', failing to spring back to their original shape as the others did when released from their capsules, a situation which prevailed after 'hot-water' treatment was tried.

Don't Forget

Details available from;

Facebook

Blogger

eMail; pw.editor@ntlworld.com

And they are on Paypal.

The old website is to be run-down/retired. And also don't forget that table prices have been reduced this year.

Finally

Peter Rabbit is being given a starring role on the new 50p piece. Designed by Emma Nobel there are full-colour enamelled limited edition type things available from the Royal Fail website and plain stamped metal ones, due for general release, but these 'specials' rarely seem to make it into your small change! Jeremy Fisher, Tom Kitten and Benjamin Bunny will follow quarterly through the year.