S is for Shelfies - Smyths

I was actually in Smyths the other day looking for Halloween stuff (there was none) and the displays were pretty-much the same as these shelfies, which I actually shot back in August, but which I didn't get around to posting in Rack Toy Month, so, basically - all still available from Smyths!

This has previously been seen in B&M, seems to be a generic, but similar to HGL / HTI stuff we saw here a few years ago, I think I now have some of these in the loose stash courtesy of Jon Attwood's donations or charity-shop bags?

 

These are the sort of thing which will start turning-up in charity bags in about 18-months time, so worth knowing, simply to attribute, at a later date; Epoch Games, also gets them in the Tag-list! Seems to be a variation of Buckaroo or the old load-a-camel game!

 

Unbranded generic here, and again the dinosaurs look familier?

A full display of Schleich, with fantasy, dinosaurs, wild and domestic animals, both boxed and single-pick items. You can't fault the attention to detail and realism, but the price takes them out of the reach of poorer kids, in a way Britains didn't really?

Just Play have these out at the moment, there have been so many chunky vinyls of Disney's main characters, there's a book to be written on them at some point, in the meantime this will help ID five of the many thousands!

Pokemon blisters and boxes, again several ranges over the years, all quite small scale, and running to many characters/poses, I think these were Mindstorm Toys, but probably licensed from Tomy or Mattel, both of whom have had the properties for twenty/thirty-odd years now?

Cartoon characters in Hot Wheels cars . . . and things! A perennial favourite with younger kids, I have a small self-published tome in the library by a Don Elliot (Comic Character Cars), which covers these up to the 1980's, from many makers!

Finishing-up this batch with bubble-liquid bottles topped-off with hatching dinosaur eggs!

H is for How They Come In - Charity Shop Backlog - 2020

Literally just clearing old folders, while I'm not currently adding much to the backlog, try to get the 900-odd folders back down to a more manageable 5 or 600 this year! These are all dated 2020, when a lot was happening, and while I did manage 377 posts (just over one a day on average) these got left on the shelf!

Must've grabbed these in passing, knocked off a quick shot and taken them up to the storage unit in a mixed tub, 'cos they're not here, and I've got stuff back to mid-2021'ish. Couple of cheap Chinacrap AFV's and three novelty elephants - one stained wooden Thai touristy thing, a similar soapstone one from East Africa (?) and a pot-bellied ebony one from god knows where!

 

Almost forgot to shoot these, and caught myself as I was putting them away, not that all the stuff in the bags has been seen here, but, whatever, I thought I'd better quickly shoot them as a lot, they'd come in a 50p-per-bear type purchase from a basket on a shelf! The Hillman's in the bag were a seperate purchase we may have seen, but they're not Tagged!

 

Confirmation of the attributions!

I don't seem to have shot the contents of this bag from British Heart Foundation separately/in close up, but it looks to be a mix of Kinder type novelty animals and a few of the smaller Pokemon, from Tomy prize-capsules perhaps?

An unloved Christmas stocking present? The silent witness to a child's death? I always get to pondering, when something like this appears, brand-new in a charity shop. One feels there is probably a sad tale behind it? I just thought it was fun, that the pencil is decorated as a piece of giant bamboo. I think the brand say Legami?

A bag of sea life, a growing collection, and the contents of another bag of mixed novelties, I think I got a second example of the wooden - probably French . . . or is it Charbens (!) - chicken, at around the same time?

The Hong Kong Timpo-copy ACW in butternut (chocolate?) was issued in various formats, in the 'States they made it into late Ideal playsets, if I recall correctly (with Crescent copy horses?), elsewhere more generic stuff, or small bottle-bagged rack toys of a few figures.

H is for How They Come In II - Little Rubber Guys

Found in a charity shop in Farnborough, up the road, at the end of October, some immediately got shoved onto the Halloween 'spreadsheet', but worth a second look as I seek to clear them out of Picasa!

Again two bags - a bit pricier at one-ninety-nine, but then they were a lot heavier, although that was due to the amount of PVC rather than the number of items! Funnily enough; I haven't collected much of this stuff in the last few years, I've quite a bit in storage, but nothing rare or exciting.

However I think the LRG collecting community is larger and more active that the poly-troop brigade and they tend to Hoover them up with quiet efficiency? It may just be that they have yet to come to market in bulk, but as I say I picked a load up in the 1990's-2000's so I think it's more that they are collected with enthusiasm.

Contents of one bag, there was almost a 50-50 split between Monster In My Pocket's and everything else, with the everything else including Yolanda, Wrestler's IMP, a few [possibly/probably] Pokemon's, a Snoopy (going to bed!), Galoob and a pencil-top which I think might be from The Mask . . . did it have a morphing dog?

There was also a Mighty Max pocket-dungeon thing, but it's not clear if the two figures belong with it and I need to find a website that lists them all, anyone know where there's a good one?

I was forgetting the Virtual Toy Chest! Chronosaur, but the squid's from somewhere else!

The person who sorted these in (or for) the Charity Shop was scrupulously fair, and the contents of the other bag are - to the casual observer - the same, even to the splitting of duplicates between the two, apart from the large Lion which I assume is from that Disney bloke's dead-lion-dad movie that wot I never soor!

Anyone recognise the pink guy with the bobble-hat, he looks like a Muppet to me, but he could be from another Henson franchise, Fraggle Rock or Sesame Street?

While the squid belongs in this Lavabeast head with the skorpider thing!

So the squadron of (Pokemon?) bees was two each in the two bags, the Pet Alien eyeballs and gecko-lizards (Pokemon again?) likewise one-each. I'm guilty of never having followed-up on John's invitation to explore HOTT (other than by downloading the rules!), so I can't say for sure; but I suspect multiples like this would make for 'army building' units in that gaming system.

The bees certainly looked worried enough to be flying naked into the withering-fire of hairy, undead, lizard-men space-marines from some esoteric resin-caster working out of a garage with a 3D printer in Toronto or Turin! 

I love the winged-eye, he reminds me of the eyes of Mouse & Kelly which made such an iconic contribution to the whole feel of the Psychedelic Movement in the print media, yet also of the Droogs in A Clockwork Orange - with the bowler hat!

B is for Buried, Better, Burger King, BMC, Brent, Bandai and Benbros

As this is the season for getting as many things on your plate as possible (without letting the gravy flow over the edge!) I thought it was the ideal moment to cover a few minor makes or smaller samples from my collection, so here are some minor 'B's'.

On the left (and marked "MADE IN ENGLAND") is a pawn from the Buried Treasure ice cream (?) chess set. These were also sold in the states both as Buried Treasure (?) and Sherbet Surprise. The question marks are down to my not knowing if Buried Treasure was ice cream or some other edible product, and not knowing if they were available in the states as BT or just Sherbet watsit!

On the right and dateing from 1949 is a joke/stag-novelty of a naked woman from Better Novelties Inc. of the US of A, who will only stay in her bath for the person who knows the secret - a sliding magnet. I have similar toys of naked women in [on] a bed and the kissing dolls I think I've covered somewhere in the 450 posts now gone below?

This is apparently a very early Burger King toy from the 1950's or 1960's and consists of the King (himself!!? Who knew or remembered he originally existed?) riding an air-powered go-cart/cartie. Coming as a kit of 4 parts in a nylonish plastic, maybe a polypropylene? His only mark is the R in a circle so favored of Giant - this must have been an American thing, we had the Copyright 'C' and the Patent 'Pat.' but the Registered sign was never of legal worth in Europe and didn't appear on our products.

Above are two bits of hollow-cast I've ended-up with; a Benbros calf and a 30mm BMC penny-toy of a mounted Life Guard, with below; the only other 'volume' producer of composition figures in Britain (we looked at Zang the other day) was a company called Brent, who produced these generic WWII British types with picture-frame nails as weapon barrels/muzzles.

There were about 3 sets of small scale Pokemon, these are by Bandai, I think I've also got smaller unmarked ones and same sized ones by Tomy probably from their gumball machines.

As these are yesterdays 'fad' now, and space needs to be made for Ben10 stuff, there might be good pickings for this sort of stuff at car-boot sales this year.