F is for Follow-ups - Recent Bits

When Chris Smith sent his parcel a couple of months ago, I told him I'd seen another of those finger monsters, a day or so before, and then spent ages looking for it, real rabbit hole stuff, in the end I went through most of the near-thousand folders in Picasa, thinking I must have moved it by mistake (sometimes you pick something up, absentmindedly, on the cursor and dump it elsewhere, without even realising it, on the way to somewhere else!), only to find it the other day, in the short or 'this year' queue, in a possible post on an exhibition!

 

Definitely a forth sculpt/pose, and if the paint-chips are anything to go by (almost certainly home-painted), this one is yellow plastic, which reinforces my - still possibly false - memory of a brown one? And obviously some kind of Kaiju from the Godzilla or Ultraman franchises.

 

From two different show reports, the Reliable figures and probably Reliable side-by-side, the standing shooters look different, because the foot-plug on the older version is not fully pushed-home, but I lined them up, and they are almost identical, even down to the long, adjustable iron-sight, over the breach, so clearly they just added integral bases changing the tool from a two-part to a three-part mould.

 

And thanks to Anonymous for highlighting the link, in comments, I was using the Way Back Machine version of the now defunct Ponylope as a guide!

 

Also from recent posts; show reports and donations, we've seen three of these recently in two posts, the others earlier in the year, brought together, you can see the two sizes (bigger pair on the right), to which can be added the several base marks, which I previously highlighted.

 

When combined with the couple of dozen which have come in over the last three-or-so years (get-at'able in storage), it will give an even better picture. While the master collection, buried in the container, which also includes the big ones, when all the new ones are added to them, will be the basis of a much better overview, one day.

 

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In this post;

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2025/02/t-is-for-two-roarsome-rack-toys.html

 

We saw a metallic dino'bird/pterosaur kind of thing, which bore little resemblance to the other four on the card-back, but separately, and also from BJ Toys, I've been picking these up at petrol stations, namely the Esso outlet at Tongham/Hog's Back, and Bordon's BP station!

 

Plant spider!

 

Reverse colours.

 

Balrog's horns on this one!

 

The trouble is, they seem to appear one or two at a time, in a large counter display carton on the bottom shelf of a dedicated/custom BJ Toys sales display unit, mixed-in with an assortiment of other novelties, so I don't know how may there are, or whether they all have reversed colour versions.

 

And if you think this link is tenuous, for a follow-up - I thought I'd already posted one! But they were in two folders, with the other not photographed, so I was happy to find the Dino-phoenix, looking for the non-posted dragon! The point being, I think they are from the same source, not BJ; in China?

 

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On the subject of ducks,

 

The two vintage British plastic foul, one from Peter and one from Chris (pretty sure I have another in pink, or a maroonish-purple somewhere), brought together with the TK Maxx crayon ducks and a generic CHINA-marked goose from a rack-toy bag/toob/tub, for scale.

 

Similar, but simplified toys from Sonsco of Hong Kong, again I have several of these in various colours, including a fluorescent pink one which is just as leery as the green one in this set!

 

And on GI's,

 

This set of re-issue ex-Marx figures, being a mix of different sets, has the chap, both Chris and me thought "looked like Marx?", middle-top, and, sure enough, he was a Marx sculpt!

 

But I'd totally forgotten that Chris sent me this shot ages (six years) ago, when discussing something else, probably wanting it to feature in a Question Time, so, to repeat the earlier question, we know the re-loader is a Marx pose, now, but can anyone give a maker/brand to this marbled maroon-brown chap, and B) does anyone know anything about the figure on the left?

F is for Follow-up - B&M Stores

 As a follow-up to this post;

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2024/12/s-is-for-shelfies-b-stores.html

 

I did go back and get a set of the mini-animals;

 

12 Dogs.

 

12 farm animals, including another dog!

 

12 wild / zoo animals.

 

12 Dinosaurs.

They work out at less than 10p each! The dinosaurs are much-of-a-muchness, I've got worse, the wild animals are more hit-and-miss, while the farm animals have their scale all over the place, but are mostly reasonable sculpts, the dogs are probably the poorest of the four sets.

 

Two of the poultry were designated to carry the consumer information for the whole set, while a comparison between the farm's collie-dog and the dog's Alsatian, reveals the different levels of expertise in two sculptors!

M is for More from London, Second of Three Plunder Posts

Continuing with the look at Peter's late summer car-booty, and we're looking at sports figures and civilians in this post, with several useful examples of this and that, the odd oddity and some old friends!

 

Two Chad Valley and a Peter Pan Playthings footballer's, similar to the Palitoy push-heads, but having different mechanisms, I don't know if the Chad Valley's have been home painted or badly painted, while the Peter Pan can still be found in larger stores, or some of the mail-order novelty catalogues.

 

Note there are subtle differences between the fixing arrangement, of the Chad Valley players, to their bases, the significance of which I don't know (slightly different ball-kick characteristics?), while the Peter Pan player has a push button attached to a lever system like Palitoy's heads, Chad Valley's have a flicker on their upper shin, and (I think) a hidden spring. Similar figures were issued by Subbuteo as strikers or goalkeeper accessories.

 

Another bunch of the current cake decoration set, so far linked to three or more brandings, and several three or seven-a-side team strips, they will be added to and compared with the growing sample.

 

A humungous ice-hockey player, with a massive, chunky base, whom I assume is from some kind of table-game, akin to Table Football? I think he's polyethylene, but he could be a softer 'styrene, or some kind of 'propylene? Discolouration is probably from direct sunlight, and can probably be cured with an ultrasonic cleaner and some bleach solution?

 

The Gem golfer seems to be a Hong Kong copy, but it is in a soft polyethylene, rather than the usual (for Cullpit-Wilton commissions) hard polystyrene, and very-much in the ABC paint-style. Two of the HK mini-clones of the Olympic figurines and a key-ring, fat-footballer kid, conversion - loop removed and base glued on.

 

A lovely, current/new white-button Disney Princess knock-off from Rex London, another Disney-like in the Bully-Phidal-Safari style; I can't remember if she was marked, but one day we'll have to have a look at all of them on one page/in one post as there are so many! The cake-decoration dancer is missing her base, but can probably be wedged into one of the Charbens-Crescent-Marty circus horses, as some versions of the same sculpt are, by Marty!

 

And the bride, also a cake decoration is a better example of quite a few in the stash, who has her lace head-covering, 'posey' and silk ribbon intact. They come in a range of sizes and base marks, in various pastel colours and with different add-ons, and I do have a few complete variations now, so should blog them properly one day.

 

The key-ring looks like another variation of the Commonwealth sculpt, but I think it's more a case of the  dancers all being dressed in a grass skirt (the pāʻū) and draped in the floral-garland necklaces (lei lāʻī) associated with Hula, which is also about hip-movement as much as the hand gesture/language, so I think it's more a case of similar look, rather than crediting everything to Commonwealth!

 

Hong Kong (Wilton?) copy of the Hawaiian ukulele player, who is 'styrene, a Marx linesman, not clear, as he's on is back rather than up his ladder, but a set we'll look at properly another day, and two MPC civilians, in yellow (reissues?), the red one is new to me and the other two are different scales of a vast range of figures, seemingly from the same source, who were available to and issued by Tesco-Welly-Woolworth's/Chad Valley and others in the mid-1990's/early 2000's.

 

From the left, Cofalu, unknown 'China', Matchbox and Corgi, the long arm of the 'Leuwah' as Inspector Clouseau would have put it! And PVC-rubber, polyethylene, polypropylene and polystyrene respectively.

 

Thomas on the left here, I think, PVC, with an unknown and new-to-me, but interesting rider/driver next to him. A civilianised version of the common seated figure we saw in black, in part one of these posts. A Benbros-Kemlows type motorcyclist is next, with a pair of what I'm sure are novelty firemen, from a larger beach/garden toy.

 

One of the cross-over's with the forthcoming Chris Smith plunder posts is this nice hard plastic, possibly phenolic or urea-formaldehyde type, possibly an early 'styrene? And basically, a novelty, floating, bath-toy, there were also swans.

 

A collection of horses, with the larger one Britains for Tri-Ang if it's the one I think it is, two of them in contrasting colours came with a large tin-plate horse-box. Papo girl on pony, with another Papo to her right, a damaged Vitacup and two coach/wagon horses complete the group.

P is for Papo's Pot of 40mm Plastics

Picked this up, reduced, at a garden centre a while back, I visited a couple this afternoon and picked-up some useful tree decorations, but nothing Halloween, nor any new toys, or novelties, but I like to keep an eye on them!

 

I think we saw these when they were first released at the London Toy Fair at Kensington Olympia, but that particular lot of shots may still be in the long queue . . . Doh! Anyway, we've seen the 40mm Pirates, probably not all of them yet, but most now? These are the farm!

 

Horse rider and horse, I think we've had her come-in with a mixed lot at some point, so she can go in the swaps pile, once I've everything together and sorted, the poultry, however are a tad big in my opinion, they could chase that calf 'till its heart gives out!

 

Heavy horses.

 

Everybody else! That's it box, or Toob, ticked!

M is for May's Visit - Animals

Moving on to the animals, and I could have reduced the shot-count with these I think, but nevertheless, we'll whizz through them, and highlight the interesting bits, while enjoying the rest!

 

Oh, they've loaded in reverse again! Not that it matters with these, there's no particular narrative to the images, or the order I took them! Hilco here I think, or Cherilea? I always get confused by these two, and one inherited the tools of the other!.

 

Almost certainly off the covers of contemporary kids magazines, I see this stuff all the time on the racks, but don't follow it, or even sample-purchase it, as one hopes somebody else, somewhere else is recording/collecting it, some titles are issuing half a dozen puppies, kittens, or cutesified pets, bare, painted or flocked, every month, or bi-monthly, there are thousands of them out there, often slight 'deforms', sometimes 2nd generation copies, and I have large bags of them, already, without ever trying!

 

I think Asterix has to be in here somewhere (or Obelix!), but which might be a licence for the comic-strip, and which might be a cartoony toy figure, if either or neither, I don't know! Is the one on the right destined for the village feast, and the one on the left from another toy, or are they both from the forests of Northern France, circa 200AD?

 

Britains bull, sans ring!

 

Vitacup pheasant, and a nice old composition hen, a bit tatty, but a 1st sample!

 

Mixed eepy-deeps!

 

He escaped from the civilian post! Looks like he should have had wheels, but possibly a bit too small for a stand-alone novelty toy, I thought, so maybe a race-game, one of those vibrating-mat games maybe?

 

Horses!

 

These keep turning up, and the total sample is probably quite big now, but rather spread to the four winds. I noticed the other day the guys at Cerealoffers, had them as question-mark cereal premiums, but I suspect they are Lucky Bag gifts, contemporary with the disc-foot Wild West figures Brian B remembered as Lucky Bag figures, and there are two versions of these, I think (slight moulding or base differences), which would tie in with the Cowboys and Indians, where there were also other types/generations.

 

Two Holly Plastics (outer pair), a novelty blow-moulded fish and a very small butterfly!

 

Four random dinosaurs, the one on the far left is from the carded set we looked at the other day! While the little, vinyl Triceratops is a cut above, but again, we were looking at that 'trickle down' improvement in a recent post.

 

Another horse-racer! Clearly, they rode straight into another folder! He's obviously from a board game, and comes with a Lego shrub, gum-ball premium donkey charm and a flat cow/calf, who keeps appearing, and may be an early (1950/60's) vehicle load, if so, maybe a pair?

 

A couple of modern vinyl animals and a Kellogg's rhino, based on the old Lido set.

 

Thanks as always to Peter Evans for finding/saving this stuff for the Blog, they may be single oddities here, but when it's all sorted out, it will make more sense! 

W is for Wax Wildlife!

Wax novelty-shaped crayons, a staple of Kinder for many years, but other people do do them, from time to time, and these were picked-up in The Range and TKMaxx, months apart, but they were figural, so . . . Small Scale World's latest wax wildlife!

 

Not very gummi-bear'ish, their arms and legs are too 'formed', and they have proper faces! Pretty sure these NPW were in The Range, back in April, but I'm not as sure now, as I was a few minutes ago, and they may have been TKMaxx clearance?

 

These (Rex London) were definitely in TKMaxx, last weekend!

Gotta' get your ducks in a row!

P is for Perfect Polymer Propine - Animals

Continuing to look at Theo's donation, a post I told him I was hoping to publish several days ago, but I am struggling, not writer's block - I can talk for England - but something more existential, or malaise-like! Anyway, some lovely items in this lot . . .

 

These are very useful, in the study of the novelty end of things; they appear to be the same as the various, brighter-coloured ones we got (still occasionally get) in Christmas crackers, but in a more realistic brown/black combo'. And I'm looking forward to comparing all these relief-flats, when they are eventually brought together.

 

Various - probably - Hong Kong animals, including a very clean-paint cow, and a deer/antelope I don't think I've seen before, who, despite a missing foreleg, will occupy an important position in the collection, as first/only sample. And two black panthers!

 

These are almost certainly from a sled or sleigh of some description, judging by the opposite-side mounting holes, but who/where? I suspect that Manurba-Dom-Heinerle-Big combine, but I'm not sure, and was it Wild West, Arctic Natives, Antarctic exploration or something else?

 

I think these must be East German, they are a heavy synthetic, or actual [shoe] rubber, which was a favoured material on the other side of 'The Wire', and I'm hoping they will be in one of the Jürgen R Schüler volumes, which are in storage at the moment.

 

This is also interesting, slightly Hong Kong'y, but also looking a bit like some of the Prior stuff, it'll need a bit of research on the animal forums, but a cheerful-looking addition to the stash!

 

While this bunch, hopefully a full set (of ten) might be European or Hong Kong'ese, and may well be a set of premiums, certainly not a set I've seen before, and quality is possibly too good for HK, so some Euro-premium issuer? However, in the style of the Airfix dogs, with hollow-undersides, they have something in common with a set of HK wild animals (Elephant, Lion, Monkey), seen here before.

 

Lovely set of - probably - French figures, in soft polyethylene, I'm not sure if the more cartoon'ish Duck, front left, is part of the set, or even the same manufacturer (see also next shot), but they are all new to me/the collection, and the Peacock is lovely.

 

Slightly lesser quality, perhaps? But the Swan maybe belongs in the previous sample, and they could all be from the same source, especially coming together, as they did?

 

Many thanks to Theo for all these, a really useful bunch on animals, a branch of the hobby much bigger than Toy Soldiers, and about which i know little, but will gen-up over time!