F is for Four Fingers of Fictional Fun

A few Sci-Fi bits and bobs which were kicking around various corners of the Laptop, and which might as well be shoehorned into one post to clear the decks a bit!

Star Wars key-rings; We've seen a few before now, but I thought a comparison was in order, and we have - from the left - an LED torch, Lego 'maxi' Darth Vader, followed by three normal 'minifig' sized rings, then an Applause young Anakin/Vader, which I think is part of the avalanche of merchandise which accompanied the fourth/first movie.

I don't know how many there were in the Applause set, so the gap is for the missing Vader in an otherwise complete set of the capsule key-ring figures, cleared through The Works a few years ago, then to Pound-Plus, branded TPF Toys for shipping-in by STL.

ET's, a planetoid's worth of ET's! The three to the right are licensed LJN, and from a set of six (or eight?), while the chap on the left is marked J.A.R. Sales, and may be more of a knock-off than an official product, but both lines are dated 1982, so may both be legitimate?

I have no idea how many of the JAR ones there were and scale on them is 'big' as he fitted in a bikes shopping basket I seem to recall (never seen it, have no intention of seeing it!), so about 1:18^th or larger? I guess there was half-an-idea for them to be compatible with dolls, for playing-out the movie scenes?

Ignore the Greek, he's been joined by three of his compatriots recently and will be Blogged separately at some point. I managed to pick up both the Remco divers from Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea last year, but they have been separated already, one here, one in storage - funny story; TJF managed to score a brownie-point with this one when I posted it elsewhere, but really, Journey to the Centre of the Earth / The Land that Time Forgot / 2,000 Leagues Under the Sea / 10,000 BC and a dozen other movies of the time were basically variations on a theme!

The metal-detector/mine-sweeper one is missing the base-stud, but as it's only used to lock them onto the floor of their retail carton, it's more a question of Do I remove the other one?

The chap to the right is supposed to be Gort from The Day the Earth Stood Still, but the head's all wrong, so I'll leave it to a jury, preferably a Bristolian one! He's a soft polyethylene and Argentinian.

Picked this up cheap a while back, as a sort of follow-up to the other day's Lunar Rover post; it's Dinky France selling-off the Zygon War Chariot crew figures as 'astronauts' in their spare-parts program! Daft in'it . . . got tub full's of orphaned seated figures and I go and get three more, but it's always about the packaging!

The funny thing is I know I have a metal Gort somewhere but can't find him, and there are more ET's in the post, so we will be returning to both those subjects in the not too far future!

S is for Star Wars III - Not Star Wars!

Yes - Jan-Feb was busy for ephemeral, novelty, shite - and most of it at the bottom of the price-scale! We had a new store open in Fleet, a Pound-plus, mentioned earlier today here, it's like Poundland, but carries larger items over a pound (something I notice the new-ownership Poundland has started doing - that'll be the failure of the pound under Brexit - thanks idiots!), although most of the stuff in the toy and stationary sections is a pound.

They have the Disney princess eggs (also TPF Toys/STL) for a pound!

Playing.  I quite like them - at that price (they can be 1.50, or even 1.99 elsewhere!).

They also supply stuff to the 'I buy them so you don't have to' Blog-fodder section, for a pound; these are frankly - fucking hideous! The fact that I had one (it's gone to charity in a bag of bits) was a fact that I have had - albeit temporarily - one too-many! Topwell for Dracco Candy; if you need to know.

Still playing! We haven't finished with this quick overview of capsule toys either, but these were all photographed at the same time.

S is for Star Wars II - Capsule-egg Key Rings

These have been kicking around for a while now and (if I can find the link) this blog showed the full range some time ago. I saw them in The Works as clearance two Christmases ago (2015/16), but they sold out before I could get any; and they were £1.99 each! They are now in Pound-plus (like Poundland, but it's not all just for a pound!) for a quid which seems better!

Key-rings (chains, fobs); but the chains are quickly dealt with and while it leaves a little hole in them, that can be filled and dry-brushed or washed-in with a bit of paint.

Manufactured by TPF Toys for shipping-in by STL imports there have only ever been the six poses, and while they are a little small (around the 50mm bracket) I like that the Wookie and Yoda have been made 'in-scale' with the others.

Playing!

Still playing...

M is for More Superheroes

I know I said that would be it for superheroes for a while, but I also said I'd look-up the ID of the new eggs I got in The Works...and then another set turned-up!

These are the insert-slips for the Hulk/Disney Princess ones we looked at a week or so ago, branded to Disney, Marvel, STL (UK importer) and TPF (manufacturer) you can take your pick where to place them in your data storage/information retrieval system!

I actually got a couple more in another store last Wednesday, some independent 'pound' store in Aldershot, so they are clearly current stock with at least one of the clearance wholesalers, being originally from the £1.99 bracket, and now at a pound with two sources to my knowledge.

 

Then I found this huge capsule from Chinese firm Zuru - who's given address is a few doors away from Blue Box's HQ - with a full 54/60mm figure, one of five, with no picture of the range we must assume Hulk, Thor, Iron Man and err...one of the others! Again, currently a pound, probably originally priced around 2.99 or 3.99, get them when you see them, they'll be another end-of-line.