H is for Hong Kong

I think that's the first time we've had what is such an obvious title! And it's an odd one today, as it's mostly musing on ephemeral stuff with little of substance, but a couple more HK companies for your archive.

 

Jon Attwood sent me this image of nominal OO-figures, copied from pre-Hornby Triang platform staff. I actually have the three on the right, but in storage, they come in various shades of blue, as here, and usually on/with the base of the second figure from the left, so I suspect the other two have been removed from their bases and given the little clear-plastic patches, while the one on the left I don't have, but he looks to be maybe a conversion?

Now for years I've been trying to ascribe them to a maker, or brand, they are Hong Kong, and I fancy - from the other civilian figures we've seen - that they might turn out to be Blue Box, but so far no banana! The closest I've got is this sheet from the archive, showing sets offered by a Moonbo Toys of Hong Kong.

However, the close-ups are less than conclusive, with the figures in the upper shot looking like they may be painted versions or copies of the Airfix hard-plastic rail workers, from before Dapol gave them landscaped bases, while in the lower shot, they just aren't that clear, but could be the soft-plastic figures Jon's sent, at a stretch?

 

But they also have the look of only being there for the press-shots, and may well have been replaced by other figures, in production, even the ones we're looking for here? 

Equally, I'm not sure Moonbo even made the stuff, as the (Saddle tabnk?) Locomotive 1928, is among the more common Hong Kong trains, appearing in various generic and branded sets, the above, on evilBay years ago were marked-up RBM, and came with card buildings and a mixed bag of mixed-scale farm, of the sort in all those generic Home Farm's and My Farm's.

 

While this one, imported by Janbo Trading of London, is accompanied by a bag of accessories more normally associated with Wild West rack-toys! A log cabin and various bits of greenery, along with a farm windmill!

 

Meanwhile, Kamco Industrial have a similar line, with a similar station, rolling stock is different, and the canopy stanchions are heavier, so I'm not about to suggest that they are related, or at least, not related to Moonbo?

 

The figures however, look to be similar to the soft rubber civilians which came with Blue Box's Airport play-sets, and consequently, there could be a connection there? With the chap in the sheepskin coat and the seated lad (Scooter Rider) being taken from the Airfix Civilians set, probably along with the other three, but it's not so clear with them.

 

I've also isolated the animals and trees, which, again, are standard generic fare, probably bought in, but again, as with Moonbo, they [Kamco] may only be a middle-man, with all of it bought-in? Calf is a Corgi-copy, also copied by Blue Box.

 

To which end, Motron Enterprises (a name which almost says 'shipper/jobber', but they are looking for OEM work?) have the Kamco set, side-by-side with Silverlit/Multimac space-tanks and some dodgy-looking, probably illegitimate die-casts!

 

As to my hopes for Blue Box's involvement, this set keeps turning-up, sans figures, as does a boxed clockwork locomotive, which looks to be HO/OO (the above is sub TT-gauge I think?), but which doesn't have figures either!

 

So, we haven't really proved anything, but we've got it all out there should anyone else like to join the hunt, or join-the-dots. Who made the pale-blue soft plastics, what sets do they go with? Is/are Moonbo and/or Kamco manufacturers, or just jobbers? Are Motron behind Kamco, or vis-versa? Did Kamco/Motron get their figures from Blue Box/are they the same figures as some BB airport sets? Questions, questions! RBM and Janbo are just importers/jobbers.

And with thanks to Paul Morhead and Jon, I think I just added four Hong Kong makers/jobber's names to the tag list while other people bang-on about Wello and Star as if they are the centre of a very small universe!

M is for Motron and Multimac

A complicated one tonight, when I first saw these they were under the Motron brand and while I took time to study the packaging and note that they used Roco-Mintanks figures for the illustrations on the cards I didn't buy them. A few years later I saw this and bought it, although by that time I had also corralled a few loose bits and pieces in a tub...

Some sort of dozer contraption called '№ 9074c - Power Shovel'. The inset top right shows a very good copy of the driver from the Tomy Zoid's mechanical dinosaur sets, while the bottom shot shows the 'BW [Bundeswehr] Troops Marching' from Roco, painted yellow and running around doing admin stuff!

Both the use of the Roco figures and the inclusion of the Tomy driver give an overall size of around HO guage (1:87th scale) for these sets, while the sets at the bottom are nearer 35mm.

The loose bits I've also collected, there are various bits that have the familiarity of having been seen elsewhere, not least the 'knuckles' either side of the cab/cockpit. Again a shot of the Tomy rip-off driver, or were they both buying him in from another sub-supplier?

I think I've seen three or four front-unit designs now and about 6 add-on items of heavy-equipment or weapons, but the follow-on unit seems to be the same basic item each time. Although the basic units are the same, the front units have most of their items glued-on while the rear unit's are all detachable.

Also carrying the Multimac trade mark is this Ocean Discovery box; Item No. 92884W - Octopathfinder Set', which is more of a construction set, half-way between Lego Bionicles and the Tomy Zoids. This figure (identified by Bill over at Moonbase) also bears a resemblance to something, but I can't put my finger on it...Cylons?

If you click on 'Silverlit' in the tag list you will get a partial list of the other items in both ranges, there used to be a whole list of Motron stuff somewhere on the Wibbly Wobbly Way (Toy Chest? Toy Locker?), and one day I'll sort the list out properly.

So Silverlit seems - on the face of it - to be the modern equivalent of the old unbranded hollow-horse guys frantically copying Giant, but targeting a more mainstream company (Tomy), or are they a (one of many) Tomy/Takara subsidiary?

News Views Etc...

Well, I said I'd be getting thematic and the two posts below (Household Cavalry and Almark) are from the HC box and the Triang/Minimodels/Omnia box, so more of the two subjects in the coming days as I've dragged them both back from the storage unit, I've also got the Zang box for Paul Morehead over at Plastic Warrior to look at so I'll be putting some quality composition on here in a day or five.

I also updated the Almark and Silverlit text-only imports I loaded on here the other night, and added a text only on Armtec as it ties in vaguely with Almark - immediately below.

I've updated all links to other blogs in and out, as Blogger seems to have lost half my links to other people back in the summer when they were 'improving' things. I've also dropped the AdSense, complete waste of time with traffic at the levels you get on a collectors site, and makes the page slow to load for anyone without Broadband, anyone on dial-up, anyone with a mobile-Internet dongle etc...The Internet - like 'Western' Civilization - seems to be coming to a slow halt!!!

As stated the other night, the Manufacturers A-Z blog (which never really got started) is no more and all the relevant entries are now here with their tags in the index, and a more general cross-reference list is starting to take shape at the bottom of the page, this will not just be cross references here, but all the cross references you might come across in the hobby, helping with research, google searches etc...it will take a while to get to a useful size though, so be patient please - I'll 'News, Views' when it gets major additions/updates.

If anyone can think of anything else I can do to improve the blog let me know, I'm 41% into my Image allowance, so you've got about 4 more years of my pontificating to look forwards too!!!

Cheers - H

S is for Silverlit

Silverlit Toys Manufactory Ltd./Dongguan Silverlit Toys MFY Ltd.

Silverlit Toys, Huai De Toys Factory, Huai De Dongguan, China

See also; Motron, Multimack.

Hong Kong/China.

Produced various small scale toys in 1980's/early 1990's. They seem to have copied other-peoples modulated/clip-together toys, added new components and produced the ‘Multimac’ range from the result. Items from Tomy’s ‘Zoids’ and Bluebird Toys ‘Manta Force’ (itself part-Tomy) are identifiable, including a chrome-plated seated astronaut. They also used Roco-Minitanks NATO infantry in the press release/box art photographs. Some vehicles also produced by/under Motron trademark/name.

Incomplete list

Galaxy Series (Sci-fi toys with copy of Tomy pilot/vehicle commander, 20mm)
№ ? - Radar Cannon
№ 9074c - Power Shovel
№ ? - Mighty Drill
№ ? - Super Cannon
№ 9077c - Cannon Tractor
№ ? - Planet Explorer
Ocean Discovery Series (underwater vessels with jointed diver/spacemen figures, 30mm)
- Commander Sub
Item No. 92884W - Octopathfinder Set
- Shark Marine Sub Set

M is for Manta Force (and Viper Squad) by Bluebird Toys (and Tomy Toys)

The oddest range I have from Bluebird is the Manta Force, only two (or three? see note on yellow figure) poses, in a few colours, and three distinct ranges of vehicles/accessories, very good ones which I think originate with Tomy, the Karnoid stuff which is of a completely different and poorer quality and some stuff in the 1990 catalogue which may never have been made here or in Japan?

Manta figures, the Gold one only came in a couple of sets and consequently as I don't actively search these things out I only have a pair of (broken) legs!

The yellow guy on the bottom row with the Pharaoh headdress is not visible in any catalogue photographs, so may be a late issue, or some body else's from some other range all together? (Terrahawks?) He is in fact from the Silverlit Multimac toys (Thanks to Bill Bulloch over at the Moonbase Central).

One of the early accessories, the build quality of this is very good and both the material and colours are reminiscent of some Ultraman or Gundam stuff from Japan.

Another from the same initial release, this used the good old 1950's toy cannon mechanism to fire 6 rockets at once, very safe, blunt rockets mind, this was the nineties!

Both Viper figures.