About Me
- Hugh Walter
- No Fixed Abode, Home Counties, United Kingdom
- I’m a 60-year-old Aspergic gardening CAD-Monkey. Sardonic, cynical and with the political leanings of a social reformer, I’m also a toy and model figure collector, particularly interested in the history of plastics and plastic toys. Other interests are history, current affairs, modern art, and architecture, gardening and natural history. I love plain chocolate, fireworks and trees, but I don’t hug them, I do hug kittens. I hate ignorance, when it can be avoided, so I hate the 'educational' establishment and pity the millions they’ve failed with teaching-to-test and rote 'learning' and I hate the short-sighted stupidity of the entire ruling/industrial elite, with their planet destroying fascism and added “buy-one-get-one-free”. Likewise, I also have no time for fools and little time for the false crap we're all supposed to pretend we haven't noticed, or the games we're supposed to play. I will 'bite the hand that feeds', to remind it why it feeds.
Wednesday, December 10, 2025
S is for Seen Elsewhere - Kinder Figures
Friday, December 30, 2022
F is for Follow-up's to Donation Posts
Anyway, I've adjusted the post and added Vortella Plastic to the tag-list, as that was the mark!
Further to Spectrum Steve's ID of the Pink Panther as being Dinky, I shot him with a few others which have come in recently, and so above, from the left we have Yolanda large and Yolanda small; both in the style of bendies, but actaully 'solids' from Spain, a duplicate key ring from a set we saw a year or two ago, another key-ring, probably Hong Kong, but new to me and then the Dinky, on the end.While the bad guy from the Black Caldron cereal premiums in the same post hadn't been undercoated for painting, well, actually he had . . . but that wasn't the comment-worthy thing about him - he was a home-cast copy in solid pewter/whitemetal!
A comparison between the new - white - duck and the older 'Hubley' one in red, except all the Hubley's I can find are shades of brown, or white, while I have black, red and yellow, so possibly a European mould-swap or license involved there? The new one is a nicer sculpt with better wing-definition, and feet - more realistic overall. I've also had a few more of the approximately 54mm Xandria's come in since Theo's stuff was posted, I think I said four were in the post at the time, but I forgot I'd had a fifth come in with a mixed Key-ring lot, a while ago; the lady on the left.From the left; Unknown (Cinderella trying on the slipper from the fairy tale 'Pixies'?), Krent Kruidenier (Krent the grocer. a De Betuwe jam premium, seen before), Pied Piper of Hamlyn (Grimm's?), Bertje Big (Bertie Pig (?), another De Betuwe jam premium) and a Witch - another fairy tale Pixie?
Note Bertje's over-all PVC-vinyl trousers, the pattern
making him look just like Podgy Pig from Rupert Bear, in his tweeds, who - when rendered in colour - is also
often drawn as white, rather than pink? As Rupert dates from the 1920's, any plagiarism is Dutch I'm afraid! But, 1950's fashion on the farm, where you find pigs . . . I suspect more of a parallel evolution, there's only so many ways to anthropomorphise an animal so it's still recognisable!
Saturday, December 24, 2022
C is for Chris's Autumn Parcel - Everything Else!
Kid's TV! A Paddington pencil-top, I think he's missing a hat, but I might have a spare one somewhere, or a Hong Kong cowboy 'Swoppet' hat in red or blue can suffice! In the middle is a new Pink Panther, while the Big Ears is from a Budgie toy tricycle I think? A Santa's sleigh, weighed-down with presents; hard polystyrene and hollow, there's a catch-like hole in the front-end which suggests he may have been clipped to something like a musical box, or that there was a deer-team with a T-bar 'key'?
There was going to be some more cake-decoration posts this month, but I think they're going to be pushed back to next year now, especially if I get the Nativities finished first! We'll see how the holiday week goes after tomorrow's cooking!
Fantasy; with a Kellogg's black cauldron figure in the middle, undercoated for painting, he's a home-cast pewter/whitemetal copy, the originals were in typical premium colours! To the left is a Chinese Lord of the Rings knock-off, I think? Again, it went to storage before I'd taken notes or paid attention! With a C.S. Lewis 'Narnia' toy to the right from Disney/Walden, we've seen a couple before here. A fantasy board game figure on the left, but on the right is a fascinating thing, which has some of the properties of a paperclip, and Chris wondered if it might be the logo/mascot of a hotel or restaurant, and have been used to hold menus or a welcome pack (fire-regulations?) in a motel-room or something like that?Does anyone recognise the slightly devilish fantasy warrior type? Equally it might hold dividers together on a board-game so players can't see what's happening on the other side of the board?
We've see these before too - classic Christmas cracker novelty! Not sure if we've seen an elephant, I know I have a bear in orange/yellow, but love this shite! This is the stuff which makes Christmas memories when you're five! Lik Be's legacy written over two of them, but no LB here! A Marx 'Mystery Spaceship' alien in the less common (?) red, as against the Orange/Green set we saw here, along with a robot sucker and mini-astronaut, and both LB piracies. Eclectic line-up here, Galoob knock-off called Soldier Force (imported into the US by James Alex Imports, don't know who handled them here?), Acme novelty mini-Autobot and a 'Gumball' pencil-top of an Ultraman, Gatchaman, Battle of the Planets, or Astro Boy character?A later Autobot/Transformer type key ring, a stylised/deform Dr. Who (last but one?) from a maker I've missed and a Character Options Cyberman make-up this trio of more recent Sci-Fi stuff. A lead Sci-Fi lady, which I'm hoping Terranova might be able to help us with, as I know he has dealt with some of these 'new production' whitemetal companies, but I don't think she's from the Dan Dare set?The second one is a rubber/PVC material and a solid, similar to some of Yolanda's stuff but not them, while the third is a Dragon Ball character, possibly Ultimate Gohan?
Half a Tente spaceman from Spain, who will go with the others to find or await his legs, and the Spaceman who might be a diver (or skydiver), he definitely held-on to something with his ring-hands and looks quite modern, but the backpack is not really a SCUBA set, nor a decent life-support system, or a parachute pack? Should have been in the previous post! The three painted ones up the top are all interesting, one is clearly a casualty from a toy ambulance, but quite a big one, anybody recognise him to ID it? Next to him on the right is a farm type in the New Ray style while the kneeling chap with treasure (?) box may be from a movie-related set?The ruing guy is actually roller-skating, and looks like various figures from Accoutrements/Archie McFee, but I don't recognise him? The small farm figures are Smart Toys while the babe in flares is probably a Homie? Another of those Chauffeur/Doorman types, and a Marx baby-jesus, which is rather fitting, right now!
Finishing with a rather gruesome trio - for the time of year - I'm afraid, but that's how I shot them and that's the order in which they were cropped/collaged. In the style of Safari, but with heavier painting/weathering and similar to the horrid hags from the aforementioned Accoutrements/Archie McFee but smaller and a harder rubber-like material, they are both a nice surprise and a mystery! Some blind-bag gaming thing maybe; they look like Monsters in my Pocket should have looked like!Which brings us to the end of Chris's donation, so many, many thanks to him for going to the trouble of putting them all to one side, saving them-up and sending them, I hope you've enjoyed looking at them, and maybe ID'd something in your odd's pile?
I've missed the Blog's birthday again, but this should get us one post from fifth-best year for posting, which is a minor miracle given what's going on in the background! So I'll wish you all a happy Christmas for tomorrow, and be merry!
Thursday, August 4, 2022
C is for Carmine-Coloured Capsule-Cats
Although two of them have an almost uniquely British theme (bobby on the investigation and ceremonial guardsman) I believe they had a pan-European issue and aren't terribly rare, but are still among the more pricey Kinder items on evilBay, due to the very small stickers they need to be found with. They are full-on 'Steckfiguren', but with the hands, feet, head, tail and legs all identical, there's no real 'swoppet' element, more 'push' or pop-together.
I like the little toe-beans on the underside of the feet, while the very-small looking red-component for the nose is actually a [hidden] larger component, so little fingers (perhaps with a parents help) can put them together. Note also; his rife is a pop-gun with a cork!
As well as the eyes, most models also have some other stick-ons, along with a small sticker of the model for fridge, wardrobe door or bedstead/headboard . . . parents who don't allow a sticker agglomeration area aren't proper parents! That's it; Kinder, Pink Panthers - box ticked.J is for Jumping Jazzberry Jaguar
Not a lot to add to the pictures, but you want to try and get three lines out of it to keep the Google-bots happy, so extra images for colour variation against different backgrounds and note he's wearing PE-kit of 'singlet & shorts' and looks happy anticipating his violent acceleration along a random trajectory with a 50/50 chance of landing on his head! Marked-up to Hong Kong with a haloed globe and the letters HF (heliotrope feline!), I test fired him and he leapt about three feet . . . and landed on his head! Testing was in the interests of research of course, I'm a grown-up, I don't play! This chap came in with a mixed lot at some point, I think. His natty jacket and hat also happen to match the sucker-pad on the one above, colour-wise, and I thought I might have him in the four we saw a while back, but he's new (there was one with a top-hat in that other set), and is probably from another set of four from the same source as last time.

















