Red is for Cat

A real box ticker here, rather like them, don't know much about them, although their WWII stuff was all over the place about five years ago (Peter Evans sent the Germans to the Blog I think, and I'm not sure they got covered properly?), but to get Redcat (for it is they!) into the tag list, here's nothing!

Modern Russian producer, but not charging 40, 60 or even 80-quid for the set, but rather a few dollars with six dollars postage! Which is the intrinsic value of a handful of made in China rack-toys - for that is what we have here, bagged with a header card and manufactured in a tough ethylene, or a polypropylene/nylon type polymer!

Sold simply as 'Soldiers' СОЛДАТИКИ = SOLDATIKI = soldiers, and as 'set II' by the seller, I've not encountered a set I, nor had the seller got one (I asked!), so they may be stand alone or a continuation of a series? I think they represent Russian knights of the12-14th Century period.

They reminded me of the recent third or fourth generation copies of the old Marx knight sculpts, imported by Padgett Bro's./A-to-Z, and while there's no actual connection I took a shot and hopefully you can see what I was thinking of!

Weapons on the new figures are a bit leery or oversized and the mace (?) on the far right needs . . . something! Work; it needs work!

A first outing for Redcat in the Tags/on the Blog, so a bit late for a box-tick, but I'm only human! These are some of the other sets mentioned above and I'll try to find the Germans and get them up here.

Occasionally you take a couple of shots which - if animated together - produce a slight 3D effect and this is one of those cases, the two shots used here would normally have been deleted in favour of the upper image in the second picture above, but they make a fun thing!

T is for Two - Cheapie Chinasaurs

Two recent purchases, both at the bottom-end of anyone's budget, but fun nevertheless and out there to be found!

On the left a set of Chinasaurs imported by Toys Mart of Southall, shipped by Yingxin Toys and apparently manufactured by Wangshu; how much of that is 'phantom' is open to further exploration I simply can't be arsed with, but the latter-pair are sharing an address!

On the right the 'World Animal Collection' or 'Museum Piece' phantom-branded gape-mouthed Chinasaurs imported by CJL Ltd., of Essex, which are actually from Toy Major's catalogue and dated 2009.

Both lots from the other sides, the Wangshu's aren't annotated so you'll have to christen them yourselves, some are obvious, some less so, but they are more realistic than the Toy Major's who are clearly gasping their last at the end of the great mass-extinction, or singing the anthem of the Valkyrie from Wagner's Ring cycle, it's not clear!

The Toy Major sculpts are marked with a full set of consumer information, among which the following can be ascertained;

Toy Major 2009

Set 111-P4

A - Dimetrodon

B - Tyrannosaurus

C - Dilophosaurus

D - Stegosaurus

Set 111-P5

E - Triceratops

F - Spinosaurus

G - Ankylosaurus

H - Styracosaurus

The Wangshu animals are made of two thin-halves (much thinner than say - the halves of an aircraft kit), probably a polyethylene but it could be something with higher properties like a propylene polymer? And, while they all needed pressing together properly when they first came out of the pack, they do look very good for cheapies when done, and it's all friction, no glue. They have the same hollow leg-insides as those farm sets we saw back in a Rack Toy Month.

Why they are called gape-mouthed Chinasaurs!

The Wangshu can almost be paired-up; by colour or type, the odd 'ones' out being the skinny green one and the triceratops, but otherwise there are pairs of kerthunkersaurs, meat-eaters, para-fersopholophdopolus . . . 'duck-horns' and the sauropods? . . . 'Big-veggies' - a sub-scale; as always!

The two sets between them give up a trio of kerthunkersaurs and three 'ceratopsians, and all make up what I consider the medium size-bracket of Chinasaurs, paint's basic on both sets (price-bracket!), and I think the Toy Major's are taken from older tools than the 2009 now etched in their tummies.

M is for More - Polski Zwiazek Gluchych . . .

 . . . et alia.

Chris Smith has kindly sent a pretty comprehensive follow-up to the recent PZG posts, with nice samples of a lot of the missing figures in both sizes from the WWII and early Cold War eras.

These are the PZG tank/AFV crew with their distinctive, padded, head-protectors, looking a bit like a cyclist's helmet (and doing a similar job, but protecting the crew from 'braining' themselves on lumpy pieces of metal AFV interior!) and dating from before the Second Worlds War, they are still in use across ex-Soviet, formally Soviet-aligned and/or Soviet-supplied states.

I believe they depict characters from a Polish TV series of the 1960's. The TV crew had a little dog, which PZG didn't model as part of the set?.

Chris reports there is one pose missing; a chap holding his rifle across his chest. As seen they are the hollow-based 50/54mm range.

A further selection of the WWII figures, most of which come under the 50/54mm heading, but the second guy from the left is heading for 60mm, and seems to have been given a thinner base to compensate . . . you call him 'Lurch' (or Lurchski!) and keep him back until Rambo or 007 are played by the other side!

Chris added that the officer in the centre is unmarked but seems to fit.

In Chris's own words; "Polish copies of the “unknown/Kentoy?” lying firing MG figure, nicely factory painted over a hard white plastic. Again attributed to PZG but I’m not sure that’s right."

Another shot. I think I've tried to ascribe the originals to/as Trojan on the Khaki Infantry page, but it's only a theory and still up-in-the-air/open to interpretation, nobody knows for sure and nobody seems to know the Polish maker of the copy for sure either!

Chris also has two of the question-mark-maker figures but feels; "...the marching figure in Puttees does depict Polish troops from the start of WWII." . . . and provides an image (below) of the soldiers so attired.

I suggested these weren't PZG and while the figure on the left is - like mine - self-coloured, the one on the right is painted over the same re-grind PZG are known for, however this seems to have been a feature of a lot of Polish production, and may well be another reason for so much stuff being so casually attributed to PZG, I've seen unpainted pencil-sharpener tanks in the same stuff on feebleBay, sometimes with coloured plastic turrets or tracks.

In defence of my theory; Chris also notes; "Very stick like weapons." . . . which does distance them from PZG's other production and ties-in with my lone example, if nothing else; the work of another sculptor?

The picture Chris sent. It wouldn't blow-up, so I had to enlarge it in Photo Viewer on the desk-top, take a screen-capcha (.png) crop it and save as a .jpg to get it large enough, so it's lost some resolution!

I'll leave the last shot's blurb to Chris; "Two bigger 60mm'ish WWII soldiers both wearing the polish Rogatywka hat. Officer has tall boots but the running guy is again in puttees. I know of 3 more poses . . . all have puttees. Always seem to be attributed to PZG but the bases are unmarked."

I've always been told they're PZG, and I think the solid 60mm versus marked-hollow base 54mm 'rule' is similar for the Northern War, streletsi, medieval and other PZG (or believed to be PZG!) stuff to?

Known Polish Makers of Vintage Plastic Toy Soldiers

Andrzej Kawecki - PVC 1:76th copies of Airfix for 'Ruch' Kiosks

Centrum - unpainted flats, 50 & 70/80mm

CZZP - unpainted 40mm modern semi-flats/demi-ronde (and full flats?)

Globus (Global) - HO-OO piracies of Airfix and Roco-Minitanks

PZG - Wide range in 50, 54, 60mm and larger scales, the trouble being they are so common they have become the generic title for anything which looks Polish

Spojnia - Small scale copies of Esci figures and 1:35th'ish  AFV's (PZG crew? Now a kit manufacturer)

Uniwersum (Universal) - As per Globus

Wyrob - Pestana via Garret credits them with the 54mm Polish winged hussar often credited to PZG, may also be responsible for some of the thick-based figures credited to PZG

WZUP - Pestana via Garret credits them with 54mm equivalent to Britains, might be responsible for some of the larger (3, 4 & 5-inch) statuettes sometimes credited to PZG?

B is for Box-ticking - Soviet Era Troops - Poland

An awful lot of stuff is credited to PZG, a fair bit of which never saw the inside of one of their production-plants! These however are safely to be ID'ed as PZG having the correct bases!

Their 'bog-standard' Warsaw Pack, soviet era troops, there are more poses I think, but it's not a bad sample. Not as plagiarist as some of their stuff, the two kneeling figures (in a darker green) look vaguely familiar and the grenade thrower seems to be channelling the old Airfix German infantrymen!

Reverse shots, this is 'range-day' or firepower-demo' PCE (personal Combat Equipment) consisting of nothing more than a belt, day-sack and weapon/s, and the base-paint is starting to come-off in large flakes! At 60+mm (with base) they are a bit to big for 54mm armies, but go well with the other figures we'll be looking at today.

R is for Reaper Rock Chick!

The same day I encountered the Buck Rogers set, I was already heading for the Games Shop in Aldershot which - many years ago - was the HQ of Esdevium Games (now Asmodee) hoping for another extension pack for my Zombies!!! (which I've never played), but they didn't have any, or - at least - they only had a cards-only extension pack.

Consequently, looking around for a consolation-purchase, and by now having the huge TSR box under one arm and my portfolio and 1000 4x5½ click-shut bags in the other hand, I plumped for this guitar-wielding punk-rock, tank-girl, chick-babe!

To be honest; when I got it home and out of the visually quite-distorting blister, I wasn't terribly impressed by the quality of the sculpt, which I would call a bit blurred or 'sandy', I've seen better 3D prints. I hope she will paint-up a bit better one day with a flash-trim and some washes?

It says it's 20% recycled plastic which is a good thing and I don't think that's the problem, I just feel it's a very poorly-defined/finished casting.

Meanwhile Brian was ID'ing his own diver from the other-day's post, with a much cleaner looking casting! Line-branded to Chronoscope, I think it also covers nicely for the worlds of Messrs Wells, H. G.  and Verne, Jules!

However  . . . unpacking for the day, photographing and sorting (of six colours, 360-odd times) faced a two-hour-plus hiatus, due - I'm sure - to Blog-visitor Jah's encouragement of shear nehkid idleness in my ancillary-staff!

Boss . . . can you move the sun an inch to the left? It's right in my eyes!

That's better . . .

. . . zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!

S is for Substitutes!

Continuing with both Subbuteo and football, this was an interesting happen-stance, or 'curio' I picked-up the other day . . . well, the end of April . . . another Charity shop purchase, it appeared to be one of the new sets and was only a few quid, I de-labelled it; shot the box . . .

. . . and opened it to find the teams were all hard plastic! Someone had bought the set for the new players, chucked two old teams (of the newer variety) in the blister tray and sent it off to charity - otherwise 'mint'!

No matter, it gives us a chance to look at a whole set in close-up, and - as a collector - has given me two teams and the new-style/designs of pitch- matt and goals.

As you can see it's not that it's an older pre-flexible figure set, it's definitely meant to be the newer type, although it's dated 2012 so they've been out for a while without my noticing.

The players are also interesting in that while the older versions (all generations) were basically one chap, there are now variations with long hair and short hair in black brown and blond.

The new nets are a bit chunkier than the old ones (and harder to store!), but there's not much in it and there's probably a reason for the two 'ears'. While the raised bar between the ears helps get the ball out of the back of the net without moving everything around!

A little vignette with red having a shot on an open goal! "Cum'on Everton; what are you playing at? Mark your man!" Straight out of the box - hours of fun!

News, Views Etc . . . Subbuteo in the National Daily's

You probably caught this news item a couple of three weeks ago or so, it made several papers and the broadcast media, but as we had Subbuteo earlier today; now's the time to box-tick the press-release here!

You can read the story - as original - by clicking on the image, but I've converted it into text below for ease:-

Net gains: first

all- ­female

Subbuteo set

By Josie Clarke

The first all-female Subbuteo set

has been launched to reflect the

rapid growth of women’s football

in the-UK.

   The FA and the game’s maker,

Hasbro, revealed the limited

edition version of the table football

game ahead of the SSE Women’s

FA Cup final at Wembley on

Saturday with the figures in

the colours of finalists Arsenal

and Chelsea.

  The FA said the new version

supported its objective to

tackle barriers in the women’s

game. The set includes 22 players

plus substitutes, with their

own characteristics.

  It is not available to buy but it

can be won via FA social channels

in the coming months.

  Hasbro and the FA said that

they were “exploring future

opportunities” to bring out a

commercially available women’s

football set.

Unless you're some sexist old dinosaur it's gott'a be a good-news story, and it'll be twice the number of teams to collect for the Subbuteo completists, and then there's the possibility of fielding a women's team against a men's team and beating them - heh-heh! Or converting them to face-off against Nottingham's Space Marines; Ripley style auto-loaders anyone?!

It should be pointed out that I can't find the competition (to link to) on the FA site, anyone know where it is?

T is for Toy Fair '18 Reports - Revell - Miscellaneous

Finishing-up the Revell reports with the bits and bobs, basically two ranges which - while probably not 'new' - are new to me and have some new items. Also a bit outside the remit of the Blog, but interesting for being clear attempts to steal market-share from people they never used to clash with, but the toy business is a cut-throat one these days, and Revell are flexing their muscles.

These are basically Playmobile for people who want more realistic figures, the vehicles and accessories aren't much different, the trolley may be a tad finer or 'less chunky' than the Playmobile version would be, but it's definitely the same type of toy; half-way between toy figures and action figures with a bit of construction thrown in for good measure.

I think they have nine points of articulation which takes them toward the action figures end of the toy-figure 'spectrum' and will give them greater playability than Playmobile figures that have always had that stilted 'Frankenstein' walk.

The subjects on display were all 'real life' of a modern or up-to-date nature, whether it will one day extend to Romans, Knights, Vikings or post-1914 style combat figures is anyone's guess, I suspect not, but if the line takes-off - who knows?

Single figures are available (like Playmobile) as an entry-point 'come-on' or collection-builders, and in a pocket-money price bracket (£4.99), given that for those lucky-enough to get pocket money, it's trending to a little-more (£5-10)that the occasional sixpence we got, way back when.

Police, fire and ambulance/paramedic crews need civilians in trouble to be able to spring into action . . . and a mix of vacant 'preppy' looking kiddults and high-performance sports cars look like a recipe for trouble to me!

One of the cars is actually licensed from Cars the movie franchise, dragging younger customers into the 'Playmobile Plus' world!

Not content to just attack Playmobile's market, Revell are also aiming their multiple sights at Lego, or it's sub-brand Duplo, with a range of large-stud [simple-] construction toys which are 'compatible with all leading brands!

A move I - for one - am happy with, Lego are a ruthless 'corporate' hiding behind the 'fake-news' of a cosy apple-pie family business, and now they've lost most of the (at one point; seemingly endless) court battles, it's nice to see other companies getting into that market.

Again, though; [getting back to Revell!] there is a more advanced element than I think you get with Duplo, in that the vehicles are radio-controlled, although as tech slides down the age-spectrum of toys, becoming ever more affordable, we will all end-up with walking, talking, flashing toys or figures who can get into their own drone and fly-off to worry the family pets!

Out now and better than Airfix's offering, but not exactly setting the world on fire either, and a clear move away from hobby-kits to early-years toys and from realistic representations of real life, historical or iconic things to licensed TV/Movie related stuff.

I is for Iwako

Right...total surfeit of vintage crap in the last few days so lets have a look at some modern crap! This crap is - on one level - real crap, but it's also trendy-crap which means that in about 15 years time you'll have 30-somthing's on whatever replaces Facebook, or whatever Blogger's morphed-into going "Ooh, I remember collecting them back in the twenty-teens!"

Take the Deiner Industries robots I posted right back at the start of this blog as a minor make, they now have several web-pages and a couple of forum threads across the Internet, dedicated to them by the LRG (little Rubber Guys) collectors, who are a generation below me.

Anyway lets look at them...

 ...except of course - you've already seen them...there are great piles, tables, racks, tubs and other displays of them in WHSmith, Paperchase, Staples, Rymans, all the toy chains, most of the independent toy shops, Wilko/Wilkinson's and most supermarkets!

You just saw them out of the corner of your eye and dismissed them as crap - correct, well done, move to the back of the class and muck about!

But a massive collectability-factor with endless colour variants means they are taking-off like Loom-bands did last year (readers in the US had the bands craze a year or two earlier...I won't be covering them here, nor Hipsters with Merman hair-do's!!! Planet's going to the dogs...), and as new packaging types come out the older ones get reduced - and they're not expensive to being with - so collecting on pocket money budgets is a goer.

The above are the two standard formats from Iwako themselves; carded sets of 6 or 7 items and individual bags with a header card.

Ty have re-packed some in the hope of repeating the success of their now fading Bennie-Babies, but giving them a name and doubling the price hasn't helped when the originators are flooding the market with their originals!

There are non-animal subjects around like these trucks, although these might not be Iwako originals, the Wilko ones seem close but not quite (see below), however they are cheap, with the three cats being offered for 49p

Anything coming from the Far East is soon copied in the...er...Far East! these are fakes, found in an Independent toy retailer and were also only pennies. They (Playwrite) are quite poor, with daft colours and a poor register for the components, the Wilko ones are closer to the originals but made in China, not Japan

A comparison between various Iwako and non-Iwako giraffes, some dice (also Wilko) and a nice Battleships game from WHSmith wihich was around five or six quid I think, but I couldn't resist it. Wilko also do three larger stacking space-ships, but I forgot to photograph them!

All these are made from a new hybrid synthetic rubber, which is a softer version of the stuff HäT used on their Assyrian Chariots, it is gritty, easy to tare and not very good at the job it's earmarked to do...erase pencil lead!

However the old PVC and soft styrene that made the best 1970-90's erasers were very damaging to the planet and the UN are keen to get PVC phased out completely in time, so this stuff is presumably a step toward that goal?

Some more shots, it's all self explanatory. Apart from a bear that was blogged here a while ago; I was bought the first few as gifts, and since last autumn have been building up a small collection specifically for this post, that's them done and I won't be seeking any more, but they will start to come in in mixed lots in a few years - guarantee it!

Link:
Iwako Company Website

N is for New Product Reviews

Well - we've got the 'New Look' without a choice and already I'm wondering why? Orange text with pale grey? Readable? And what's happened to images (shut-up Hugh, at least they're getting them in the right order now!)...the only way I've found of getting this paragraph written is in the HTML window as the old 'compose' window won't let me start writing above the image?!

Anyway. I'm sure there'll be more whingeing from me on this score (why is the 'stats' page less wide than it was a week ago, despite the fact that the whole world is trending toward wider screens?!!), so to this post...a new thing for the blog; new product reviews.

A few words on the subject - I've never asked a company directly for 'free stuff', as I've seen how it can lead to sycophantically false copy, however, like just about everyone I like to get something for nothing, and if people want to send me things I'll look at them and post a review here. My budget only goes so far and is primarily dedicated to vintage figures and old ephemera, new production being very much an afterthought...So eMail me (top left of page) if you'd like to send me free stuff! But bear in mind that I will be honest.

 

So paragraphs now centre automatically do they? Here are today's review items, the book was supplied by Pen & Sword publishing (thanks to Rachele there) while the figures came from a new company; AJ's. (thanks go to Jim who is - I suspect Mr 'AJ'!), both items are easy to review as both are really good at being what they are - a book on war-gaming and a new concept in toy figures.

We'll look at the book first;

This is a timely book as I've noticed in the four years I've been Blogging that this period is not only gaining in strength, but is also popular in the larger scales, where it can involve 'Toy Soldiers' as several of the blogs I link to attest. Written by a Neil Thomas, who I don't know from Adam, it is a good primer on the subject, and covers the period between the end of the Napoleonic Wars and the later part of the nineteenth century.

About half the book is put over to historical battle 'scenarios' with each receiving a potted history, suggested number of moves played, disposal of forces, special rules if applicable and so on. There are also various appendices; a very useful annotated bibliography, a guide to the various figure scales and a list of useful contacts. I found this third one to be a bit thin, but I'm coming at it from the angle of someone archiving ten-thousand-plus toy and model figure companies...for someone interested in this period I suspect the list is a good guide to the main publishers and figure/accessory suppliers..

I wouldn't say it was 'profusely' illustrated, but it has all that is needed with regard to maps and diagrams, lists and tables with the added bonus of a colour section in the middle.

As the period was one of great change the most useful sections for me (as a non-wargamer) were the historical background, time-line and army lists. I also liked the fact that throughout the work provision is made for converting those relevant pieces of the rules for use in different scales.

The reason for the strange date is that this book is specifically about Europe, and therefore ignores the American Civil War and the various colonial adventures in Africa, Asia and further afield. Starting with the congress of Vienna and finishing with that in Berlin following the end of the Russo-Turkish war and the formation of Bulgaria. In fact; the most fascinating period of recent European history and a period not taught well in school, if at all?

So - Very happy to recommend this book. I believe the author has also published a book on the Napoleonic era, and one hopes he will complete a 'trilogy' with one on the foreign wars of the 'colonial' period mid-to-late century? It is also so rare to get an entirely new book on the subject it's nice to read one that doesn't have the familiarity of the old in a new jacket!

Our second sample for review is just fantastic! Soupie covered these on his blog a while ago (MinifiguresXD/Toypedia) and Plastic Warrior covered the 'rival' set from Kid Robot the other month (Plastic Warrior, subscribe!). Clearly a trend toward non-military 'army men'...Green? Check!...54/60mm? Check!...small bag with header card? Check!

But that's where the similarities end, these are very well sculpted/finished figures, and with 3 each of eight different poses you can produce a small skate-park of fun  in seconds. Obviously they are not aimed at me or my generation, but if they bring the younger collectors back to model figures so much the the better. And with snowboarders and surf-boarders on the way this is shaping up to be a fine range of figures.

One needs also to bear in mind that two of the best 1950/60's sets for holding on to their value and/or commanding a high price are the Mettoy/Playcraft hospital figures and accessories and the Britains ballet dancers, so it's never been only about killing and guns...or marching up and down the sqway'er!

Here we see (from the left) front and rear views of the figures described as; Tail-grab, Nose-grab, Cruising 2 and Ollie. The figures really are very good, with some having the awkward 'gangly' stance of a teenager growing faster than his wardrobe can keep up with him, others having the 'too-cool dude' attitude of the guy with the pink kryptonics at my own school 32 years ago!

This really is a 'new concept' and with Kid Robot producing Brake-dancers and street-performers, there is mileage in them if they prove popular, with the whole gamut of teenage-culture and 'extreme sports' to pick from...how about a set of Italian Lambretta-kids showing off down the sea-front promenade? BMX/Griffter-kids? Also for the older readers; a couple of these will make excellent message 'runners' for your middle-east scenarios!

If you have a young lad between say; 6 or 12, buy him a pack and see what he does with them?

The other four figure poses; Manual, Smith, Pushing and Cruising 1. 'Pushing' is the annoying one we've all seen careering down the centre of the pedestrianised town-centre oblivious to the 'No Skateboards' signs and everyone else!

There's a website at www.toyboarders.com and also a short stop-frame animation;

Toy Boarders on Youtube

These are made of one of these modern hybrid plastics and while being I suspect - mostly an ethylene type polymer, there seems to be  a bit of a softer material like a PVC included, giving the figures a slightly rubbery surface texture like some 'posh' kitchen knives, hand-tools or cigarette lighters these days and I think they will take paint very well. Certainly the detail is worth the effort with a paint brush and so - 2 out of 2 on tonight's reviews!