M is for Masudaya's Multi-Material Minis

An old-school name who's predominantly tin-plate stuff fills the books on such things, not least Tashen's 1000 Robots, Space Ships & Other Tin Toys, New Cavendish's Future Toys (from the past!) and probably Chronicle Book's Yesterday's Toys, but they don't credit many of the makers in that one!

But these are modern, Masudaya (Modern Toys), harking back to their past, and surviving where most of their contemporaries (not just in Japan, but the big US and German Tin-plate names have all gone), these smaller-scale space toys were very tempting, but I only photographed them!

 

The general shape of the ship is very recognisable if you've caught old tin-plate space toys in passing, but I think the periscope 'technician' is rather daft, not only would a periscope in space be about as much use as star-drive on a submarine, but the operator would be shredded by space-dust? The 1950's was a different planet!

 

However . . . there's a figure! And a spaceman in near-NASA garb, so there's that!

 

Described as 'Adult Collectors Items' NOT toys and NOT for children under 14, I think they'd make the best Christmas-stocking toys, it's exactly what you want to find Santa's left you at 4am!

 

This was with the above, and again, the 'racing' spaceships were an old trope, with an exposed pilot taking everything space has to offer; radiation, space-dust and extreme temperatures! I actually saw a third at Sandown (these were shot on Adrian's stall), and it was on a mate's stand, but I didn't think to shoot it.

 

Google reveals there's at least half-a-dozen in the line, and they are about one-quarter the size of the vintage originals they are referencing? Tin and plastic, the whole underside of this rocket racer is plastic, where it was tin on the originals. Fun things!

R is for Return to Rubber Robots

From time to time, I tend to hit feeBay with a bee in my bonnet and grab a bunch of cheap BIN's and a couple of unfought auctions with a low start. So about a week later I start to get all these relatively economic packages arrive in batches (it also illustrates how Parcelfarce and Royal Fail work, not daily, but in batches); last week was one of those weeks!

 

These guys turned-up first, new packaging and two new colours of the one we originally saw from WHSmith as a clearance a few years ago here, I presume this Songyea from China is the originator brand for the stationers 'generic'?

With them arrived a set of printed, cartoony 'flats', which - as with the similar 'Dinorasers/Erasersaurs' - I collect for completeness rather than any realism in sculpt! They seem to be printed out of the same varnish-base'd waterslide-transfer stuff used for temporary tattoos?

The next day, this Toei 'Voltron' behemoth arrived . . . I had expected it to be much smaller; not, perhaps, as small as the others, but certainly as small as some I have, which we will look at next, but this six inch beast, who is really five earsers plugged-together, turned-up!

 

Branded to Lootcrate, from The Loot Company LLC, and further credited to/licensed by ClassicMedia; it may be a hark-back to other erasers (next post's lot), or just one of the many giant 'Bot toys which were around at the time (late 1970's-early 1990's)? This is actually dated 2021, so relatively contemporary and a 'retro' collectable for kidults.

 

Close-ups of the pop-together newbies, for some reason I shot the two colours we've already seen, although I had to shoot the blue one as his card/flap has different artwork.

 

And the flats, they are a bit too happy for my liking, but it's another six robot erasers to add to the pile, so . . . whatever! It's funny, you get fixated on something, because a few have come in by accident, and before you know it, you have a better sample of them than you have of 'proper' somethings, like Arab warriors or Japanese infantry! It's just the same with the Dinorasers, novelty guardsmen or any other 'side-collection'!

 

These two were a day or two later, the orange one has separate arms, but I think they still belong together; just that it was a chunkier sculpt, maybe test shots proved it wouldn't mould properly, so they redesigned it with separate arms?

 

Another size comparison, by the time these had all arrived I'd bought/won the large lot with the silver/gold stuff (and much else for another/other day/s), which gives us one more shot, also a sizer . . .

 

. . . being a couple more of the Macrobots pencil-tops we saw here, the three metallic ones from the mixed-lot and a couple of Diener's (one of which is an alien humanoid, not a robot!) which have come in separately over the last few months! All roughly compatible with the smaller three in the previous shot.

R is for Rocket . . . USA!

That rocket I posted from Terranova the other month, which I thought might be MP for Mars Patrol . . . it was MP for Mars Patrol!

I based my assumptive presumption of a guess on the fact that the tail logo seemed to graphically represent two similar planets orbiting a larger sun, at similar -but different - distances from it!

Turns out it is a modern reproduction of an original tin-plate toy, although reproduction isn't the correct phrase, it's a re-issue from the original Masudaya moulds, commissioned by Rocket USA who set themselves up to source the Japanese toys of the 1950's and 1960's, committed to issuing toys from . . .

"America's Space Age of Innocence: a time when space exploration and robotics were in the beginning stages and every man, woman and child was full of fanciful notions about robots, space travel and galaxies beyond."

My cursory search has also thrown up licensed toys with Futurama and The Day the Earth Stood Still themes.

I don't know if they are still going, gone bust or just don't have a website, however, you can still get the MP-1, but in a different box - here and they'll be watching the orange Mekon carefully for announcements of forthcoming tariffs, if they are!

The figures turned out to be TMNT castings from Dark Horse Miniatures 

B is for Bought Yesterday

Or two days ago by the time this publishes. Tuesday's visit to the charity shops produced this curiosity for one of your earth-pounds; winging its way to Scope's accountants!

It was clear - even as I walked over to the till - that it was too clean to be an original, and sure enough it turned-out to be a Mattel/Atlas Editions thing from 2014, however, apart from the new consumer information panel on one side and one other change (below) I think it's otherwise a facsimile 're-issue' of an original piece of French Dinky merchandise from the 1950/60's and was still sealed.

Before opening and after sorting.

I've seen other Atlas Editions, they seem to be semi- 'part work', semi-subscription, mail-order ventures of some kind; there was a rather nice offer of a 'little grey' Ferguson tractor, and an original Mini Cooper or Morris Traveller, both advertised via flyers in Sunday supplements and the like, but I had no idea they were tied-in with Mattel? I guess they got the Dinky brand-mark along with Matchbox's when they bought off Universal?

It isn't clear if it's an all-French thing (that is to say both the original - which was - and the re-issue), the bulk of the text is 'foreign' (up to four languages) but the additional consumer panel is Anglo-French and the handler is given as Éditions Atlas, while the bases are all-English, and the whole seems to have been made in China.

Modern or not, it's a lovely little thing and for a quid you can't moan. A close-up of the base reveals that not everything is a full copy of the original, I have some British ones somewhere, so one day I'll do a comparison. If I can find an answer/more on Google while posting this (Wednesday) I'll place the link right here - no I won't - they are common as muck and all over evilBay @ £1.99, still a nice thing though!

And the signs themselves are just as nice as the originals, with a fine finish to the plastic poles/signs, and the same heavy, die-cast Mazac bases. I don't know if the French Dinky signs were always plastic, the UK versions - back in the day - were slightly chunkier, all die-cast, single mouldings.