C is for Carmine-Coloured Capsule-Cats

Love these! I only have four, I think there are about 12 from Kinder? Plus some solid, single-piece ones, but as a box ticker these four will do. I love them because I loved the cartoons, they were so chic, so stylish, it's like someone in the 1950's made some colour cartoons and hid them until the 1970's!

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.

T is for Two - Tarzan

King of the Jungle, Lord of the Apes, Whisper of the Animals, Prince of the leopard-print underwear!

Half this has been in the queue for a couple of years, indeed I think I lost the folder a couple of times, and it nearly got written-up over a year ago but things shifted - as they do, while the others were shot the other day, but together they make a nice 'T is for . . . ', and quite different treatments of the subject between the two!

Sent to the Blog by Brian Berke - as I said - ages ago (possibly after we'd looked at another Tarzan or jungley thing here?) and totally new to me; large PVC single-moulding figurines in the style of Bullyland or Papo, Plastoy or Schleich, but actually clearly marked-up to Disjorsa.

Google has so far failed to find any other products, or a history of the company, but the Tarzan set had a third pose; flexing arms in a half squat like a bodybuilder, which appears to be less common. The use of the J in the company title/brand suggests Portuguese or Spanish as a starting point and while that could point to Central/South America, most offers are on European sales sites?

About 100/110mm, and some of the sales descriptions I found mention Jonny Weissmuller as the target of reverence in the sculpting, being not familiar with such things I can only presume the likeness to be such . . . ! That turned into a pompous sentence rather quickly!

Perhaps I should continue the blog in the habit of an Edwardian gentleman? "And forsooth, the real surprise of this fine morn's investigations is the incredible likeness of these novelty trinkets originating from the colonies of the Far Orient to the prodigious output of the company owned by the widely regarded William Britain Esquire!"

Feb. 2025 - now to be also seen here, with extra images.

A safer size for PW's fans (other branches of the hobby do exist), is Kinder's little Tarzan pop-together's, variation provided by (yeah! Pompous-head on today!) different coloured bases in red, green or brown.

Every Tarzan deserves a Jane and Kinder's gets one! She has no weapon to speak of, but that parrot looks pretty sharp! She has a more obvious variation, the green runner was also issued in Yellow, I may have one somewhere (the Kinder box is still in the depths of the garage, but may be found in the next few weeks?) but fear it's an incomplete green one!

Both are of eight pieces, and the Kinder numbering suggests they were paired in the order-forms with other models; the Zorro set were of the same source with similar bases and are also of a TV/Movie theme?

Cheers again to Brain B for the Disjorsa examples.

S is for Steckschlitten!

We saw this briefly in a post about 10 years ago here, when I collaged all sorts of Bonux stuff into over-busy images - I was still getting the hang of this Blogging malarkey - so I thought we could look at it again in close-up.

Until quite recently (17th/18th, maybe 19th Century?) the was no orange as a colour, things were either red or yellow (gold in heraldry), and looking at this you can see where they were coming from, I mean; clearly on one level it's orange, but equally and in certain light it's really a bright scarlet!

11 pieces (I've lost a ski from the parts shot!) come - still on the runner - in the little Bonux bag along with a random, loose horse, and clip together with studs and holes. The driver has a separate arm with literally; a 'whip hand' but lacks any feet, to speak of!

Most of the cake decoration sleighs are beyond doing much with, due to their design or cartoonish appearance, but this could easily be thrown against the German panzers at the gate of Moscow; winter of '41 in a war-game.

Indeed; the floor's big enough to take a mortar, with the crew on the first bench and ammo/supplies piled on the second seat? The driver would need a helmet though or a little red star on his flat-cap, give it a go - a self-propelled mortar . . . but you can't have mine; you vandal!

C is for CharlyKit; Dulcop's Pocket Swoppets!

As we seem to be in Italy today! Only a brief one but hopefully interesting, and definitely one of the more important 'bricks in the wall' of our hobby or what we do, even if you - specifically - don't collect the novelties or action figure types.

And . . . I Know; it should be the first day of Rack Toy Month, but I've so much non-rack-toy in the queue I forgot, but there's lots of RTM posts as well, so it'll all happen, I just don't know what order . . . then there's PW and Toy Fair posts!

Dulcop's CharlyKit; little pop-together figurines, they would later be supplied to Kinder, and were much copied by other people both in Hong Kong and Europe (specifically Soviet-Russia) and in various sizes, although they may have themselves been influenced by Playmobile/Little People? Seemingly aimed at a 'pocket-money' market and similar to Spain's sobres, this appears to be an attempt by Dulcop to nick some of Cane/Grisoni (CGGC)'s market-share.

There are at least 12 different versions listed on the box, and it's all down to plastic colours and the 'tool' or accessory-runner, which has a hat/headdress and couple of accessories for the otherwise identical figures, each of which have eight points of articulation, once they're put-together.

As I say; I don't know who came first CharlyKit or Playmobile, but I'm sure both pre-date Lego Minifigs, which make the awards the Toy Industry have given Lego for their Minifigs a bit of a mystery, but then they've had similar awards for the bricks they stole from Hestair Kiddycraft, so a pattern developing there I think!

As well as Kinder and Hong Kong I have a feeling I've seen these copied in Russian packaging from the tail-end of the Soviet-era . . . mid-1980's?