A is for Alien Partworks - Real Aliens, Really, Really Real Aliens, Everbody . . . They're Real, They ARE!

Yeah! Did I over-egg my belief-position on these in the title! I picked up five 'Aliens' at Sandown Park, which are interesting, and as non-articulated plastic figures, certainly deserve a place in the collection, but with sets on Star Wars and Star Trek running into the hundreds, not a bandwagon I'm ever looking to jump on, but, well, here's five!

 

Four of them are from 'The Real Alien Collection', from 1999, ladies and gentlemen, these are all real aliens from Alienville, Alieniania! Actually, it's worse, with long description of where they're 'really' from and who they are!

I just wonder why they always visit the dysfunctional drunk on a Tennessee trailer-park, a lonely Montana farmer, or the odd bloke with the Hapsburg Chin, in the council bungalow on the edge of a Norfolk village, rather than popping-down to Westminster, Buck' House or the UN General Assembly? Why do they frighten people retuning-home from the Pub, rather than frightening POTUS into behaving himself!

PVC figurines attached to a 'styrene or 'propylene base, they were mostly stuck in with sticky-pads, and for now I haven't decided whether I want to defenestrate them or leave them as they are, so imagery isn't brilliant, but you're hopefully getting the picture!

 

The Alien Collection flyer has the look of having been designed by next-door's unemployed teenager, in a Windows 98 version of poster-maker! But a quick perusal suggests they were quite serious in their delusions! There are, or have been, several alien-themed attractions or exhibitions in Blackpool over the years, including Tussauds, and clearly this lot was tied-into one of them!

 

I've had a quick hour of research into this set, and my conclusion is that only twelve figures ever made it to the light of day, that is, the eleven mentioned here as "Available now", and one further one, which probably 'broke the bank', and which I can't identify, as it's not too clear, without packaging, which is which, but it could mean I already have a quarter of those extant, to find!

 

'Followed for 23 minutes . . . '

At those speeds, it'll take them a billion-years to get home! 

 

One had come loose, so we can enjoy him, her . . . it, with detailed cosmic history!

 

Yeap, 'no longer in this form', but had the decency to let us know!

Hahahahahahaha!

'Four fingered hands' . . . no opposable thumb!

None of them, ever, seem to have opposable thumbs!

ET had opposable thumbs, and he was in a kid's production, FFS! 

 

A few years earlier, in 1996, Shadowbox also did a set, they seem to have managed about seven or eight figures, before folding, and took themselves slightly less seriously, including movie characters, like a 'man in black'. The fact that neither series went anywhere interesting, gives an idea of just how niche UFOlogy actually is?

And I say that as someone who has seen at least one UFO, but I'm a cynic and a rationalist, and I know that there will be a perfectly reasonable explanation for what I saw, which excludes all the above nonsense!

 

I do vaguely remember seeing some of these in the old Forbidden Planet shop in New Tottenham Court Road, back in the late 1990's, so they did everything they could, distribution wise, but there just wasn't the clientele?

 

And finally . . . . 

 

E is for Eye Candy - Accoutrements, et al, 'Colorform' Aliens

Here's a daft thing . . . I posted these about a year and a half ago, while living in the previous flat, and it was cobbled together from Internet images and a couple of catalogue scans, when I had this image in Picasa all along, of my set, which I took in 2021!

So, to be viewed in context, here's the post to which they should have been included;

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2024/04/c-is-for-colorforms-not.html

M is for Marx Space - Moon Men & "Aliens'

So, to the aliens, known in the later (1970/80's) sets as Moon Men, and six of a possible seven poses. I've only ever seen the crawling alien in the gray PVC, and we've seen him, so he got left out!

 

The set of six, in a softish 'Airfix' polyethylene, a bit bright, but not as bright as the orange-red of some of the space stuff, and it's the whole slime-monster lagoon-radioactive-neon lighting trope of a lot of sci-fi - this colour was common on comic art and pulp-paperback jackets, spilling, radiating, blasting or dripping! Even the 'lobby-cards' and posters for black & white movies would have plenty of florescent green, lime green or yellow-green!

 

Compared with the Rex Mars set's versions, and as we'll see in a second, they are 'versions', all six were found in the Rex Mars set, with one or two also found in Tom Corbett or Space Patrol sets.

 

'Big Ears', the only one found in all four sets, and the similarities between this sculpt and the Fireball XL5 character 'Zooney the Lazoon' is almost certainly not a coincidence, as the Anderson's raided the entire 1950/60's toy oeuvre for their various TV series', the fact that they ended up with a character in a 1962 production, which resembles a 1950's space toy from the other side of the pond, is beyond accidental!

 

Note also, all the bases (and feet) are quite different, these are variants, not the same tool . . . with each being re-cut/finished as it was included in whatever set, the six 'ethylene Moon Men having their own tool, leaving the crawling guy in the Tom Corbett set, as the outlier, not included here.

 

I've seen a Tom Corbett Space Academy set, with all three PVC sets, so you got three Big Ears, but helmets for the Rex Mars sculpts only, it had pale-blue 'office furniture' and was dated 1952, ten years before Fireball XL5!! 

 

Likewise, the 'Frogman Assassin'; 

completely different bases on each of my three samples.

 

I already had four of them in a different shade of green, whom I had shot for the archive, and actually found the bag first, whilst putting the others away, then remembered I had shot them, and you can see in the lower image a clear colour variation between them! No accessories in this post; I'd run out of things to pose the figures with by the time I got to these chaps/chapesses/whatever's!

O is for Original Artist!

Shot this on Adrain's table, at the May Sandown Park toy fair, by BP Fairs, which is a good excuse to remind you there's another one (show, not painting) this coming Saturday!

 

Gouache (I think) and airbrush on art board, and we'll call it 'UFO'! There is a Dave McCoy on Faceplant, an American Artist with similar work, but more natural or abstract subjects. He also seems to always sign with a small 'c' on the Mc., so it may not be him, does anyone know who painted this?

Y is for You Wait Ages for One and Several Come Along At Once!

Hot on the heels of the two sets we saw a month ago, and the pencil top/clinger pair shown here at Small Scale World over Christmas, comes a fourth space-related set of erasers in as many months! This one credited to an Ooly, and containing 12 erasers for four-quid, or 33.3r-p each! 

Galaxy Blast! In the style of Iwako, as the previous two were, with a 'puzzle' element, they are press-together segments of different coloured rubber. If the connecting studs are the same diameter, we could have fun with all three sets, and others we've seen in the past? A future post maybe!

 

Peep's; the guy on the left looks a bit like a space faring Wimpy The Moocher from Popeye, I don't know why! In the middle, a domestic fembot of some kind, maybe a waitress at a drive-in, and an Alien Panda?

 

Spaceships; A pair of Bezos phallus-rockets in the background, and a fourth (seen here recently) pulp-ship in the centre, with two generic fighters/atmosphere craft either side!

 

Two more planets, both with rings, a giant telescope to the left, and a dish-concentrated death-ray to the right, ready to go to Hoth! Add the planets in the Home Bargains 'Blast Off' sets we saw here in '23 & '24, and there are more than enough now, to arrange for one to be Pluto!

S is for Still Unknown, but More Clues?

Posted here before, once or twice I think, I won't link back as there's probably more information in this one, unknown spacemen, and they're still unknown, but a few clues and the missing pose, with extra colours, might jog someone's memory?

 

This is the current 'here' sample, actually shot weeks ago and off to storage in a day or two, I think the older post used a different sample, and the two can be brought together (with a third lot?) at some point for a more definitive post, if we get a brand or set-title, at some point!

I shot them all twice as the colours were a bit 'fluid' under different light conditions/flash, but there are two reds, one pinkish/heliotrope, the other more fire-engine! And three distinct greys, one blueish, along with a caramel version of the toffee!

But these came with them, in the same blue as some of the figures, I think Shaun associated the figures with a 'space tank', from hearsay/without pictures, could they be the ones Chris sent which we looked-at here, the grey is similar, underside is similar, but they have revolving turrets? It would certainly allow two 'sides' to have vehicles? There's probably a play-mat and some palm-trees missing! Shades of Y-Wing fighter to one of them?

These are some 'suggested' names I gave them, as they seem to tick the boxes, making them maybe mid/late 1990's and the new Star Wars trilogy pushing Buck Rogers repeats off cable?

While I was PlayPlax'ing the other day!

C is for Colorforms, Not!

Or; C is for Correcting Myths! A lot has been written about these around the Web over the last few years, and a fair bit of what has been written has given a certain type of evilBayer the idea that these are worth, three, five, ten-times what these recent, probably still current somewhere, 99p rummage-tray figures are actually worth!

Generic Space Attack set of all twelve, date unknown, but these have been around for a while, you get six spacemen/aliens/robot types and six space vessels, which happen to be six Colorforms knock-off's, and Thunderbird 1-5 clones with a space shuttle, it's the Colorforms connection which leads to the exciting pricing, but they are probably, actually knock-off's of the 1980's play-set knock-off's from Toyco's set, Alien Attack, where they were polyethylene mouldings, approximately 60mm against these 54mm PVC wobblers.

 

Brian Heiler's Video on the Canadian set

We then find them in the Archie McFee (Accoutrements) catalogue, circa 1996, I think, and they may have had a fancy box, or been sent-out in a plain carton or header-carded bag? Now called Alien & Spaceship Invasion, you are still getting all twelve, despite the caveats in the description, I suspect you got one of each moulding.

 

But in 1998, the six spaceships are issued in a boardgame, sans figures, Aristoplay's futuristic Mars 2020 (how far away 2020 must have seemed to them in 1998!) which must - if it was a single tool - have left a lot of extra figures kicking around in some Chinese warehouse, looking for a buyer . . . 

 

 

. . . which was found, with Ruestes in Argentina,  and their Star Attack line, which consisted of lager boxed sets, which had the figures and a larger toy, not the spaceships, although the spaceships were included in smaller sets and carded blisters, some with other toys, some with a five 'Colorforms'/'Thunderbirds' assortment.

 

Spanish language video of the Ruestes sets

So, we've been attacked, invaded and explored by Aliens, Stars, Space, Spaceships and Mars, and I suspect, somewhere, in some wholesaler's or toy-chain's territory we are still being attacked by these cheapo' knock-off's, I know there's a French seller, who seems to be selling a lot of them, lose, which he appears to have got as a job-lot and broken-down . . . cake decorations? Bazaar figures? Wait 'till you see them cheap in a 99p rummage-tray, is my advice!

2 is for Not 3 Men From Outer Space

Returning to a perennial favourite, a line we've definitely had more than once as an opener! And it's our blow-mould copies of the Giant minis we're looking at again today, with a couple of new snippets of information to round the whole.

This was a evilBay lot about 18-months ago, showing the pose I actually only noticed as I was Blogging them last time;

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2018/09/3-is-for-men-from-outer-space.html

The back of the card is overprinted to JBZ, or Joseph B. Zahn & Bros., a US importer ('Jobber'), who carried all the usual fantastic plastic from Hong Kong and repackaged the cheaper/smaller pocket-money tin-plate from Japan.

Then, about a year ago, I picked up a two'er myself, with the errant pose, and . . . blue lenticular eyes, not the common black, sometimes rendered as a grey, so, there's a variant to add to the story, as well as the 'new' branding! My card is the more-common unbranded generic, though. I wonder if they did 1's? Or 4's!

 

Close-up of the new guy, with his lady-charmer eyes!

L is for Let's 'Ave Some More!

No, not nastiness; that was this morning, but after that tiresome rebuttal, I thought we could look at some more glow-in-the-dark aliens as there does seem to be a relatively endless supply of them, I still haven't got the jewel-eyes keyring ones, and somebody posted some nice green, larger scale ones the other day.

Like the pirate ships which have been around for a while now, these seem to be all over the place at the moment under dozens of - mostly - unbelievable brands (Amazon), or as unbranded generics on feeBay, which was my procurement route of choice!

At the equivalent of about 50p each one feels a bit cheap complaining, but they are not packed very-well, and being, in fact a type of poured resin, rather the commoner and more hard-wearing polymers we might expect, two of mine did not pass the Royal Fail test! They are from about 25/30mm for the smallies up to about 50mm for the taller chaps/chapesses!

Some sellers don't offer an option, mine had 'blue light' or green light' with the differentiation apparently being the colour of the eyes, although as a confusion in some shots (there are many!) they clearly all had black ones? I opted for 'blue light', but as you can see, I've got mostly green eyes, two with blue, and one with black eyes, unsurprisingly - given what it's been through - one of the broken pair, who also seem to be a darker polymer?

 

This confusion carried over to the photoshoot, where one shot (previous) confirmed they must be the blue-light set, and another seems to suggest they might be greenies? God knows, but I suspect, given it will be additives to neutral resin, that QC is all over the place on different batches, maybe measuring by hand? . . . Still, you pays your money and takes your choice, and at 50p each who cares? The superglue needed to be mixed with liquid poly before anything took, though!

A is for Arstornuat!

Which can only be pronounced arse-torn-out I think, but you'd have to ask TJF, as I'm getting this gift from a legend-in-his-own-lunchtime Loyal Readers, and I'll definitely be tearing the arse out of it, it's not every day your self-confessed 'eemie' drops such a prize in your lap, so gently, and while he's been back and corrected some of his 'egregiousnesses', the spelling's still up there!

Box-ticking these semi-flat 'novelty' figurines from CP Inc./US Toy, you get six poses-each of astronauts (are you taking notes at the back there?) and aliens, they look like they were probably party favours, issued in the last decade or two, C ― P marked stuff started appearing in second-hand lots round about the mid/late-2000's?

 

The aliens, shades of Mars Attacks (exposed brains), which could further narrow down the issue date, and while one is armed, they seem more occupied in getting their first semaphore lesson off-pat! Approximately 50mm and manufactured in a dense polyethylene or 'propylene.

 

The Astro [star] Nauts [sailors], it's all Greek to me! NASA-like with no weapons or killy-things. "We . . . come . . . in peace . . . to do . . . no harm!", said Captain James Tiberius Kirk, before shagging one of the lady-aliens! I thought I was probably missing one pose, hence the reversed figure, but they are just similar poses.

A is for Answered - Box Ticking Toy Major!

The pre-Christmas question time was answered, they're Toy Major, I should have worked it out from some of the pirates, but they don't have the more comprehensive (or complicated!) marking of 'modern' or current Toy Major, so, anyway, that's what they are, and to be fair, I did suggest they looked like Toy Major 'stuff'!

Yes, the fourth from the left/third from the right Alien, is 'Mirrorman'!

And, no, they haven't really improved since we last looked at them here;

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2023/10/q-is-for-question-time-u-is-for.html

It occurred to me there was a bit of the Party Pig set of Star Wars knock-off's about them, but I think it was fanciful thinking based on the over-use of Wellington-boots in both sets! It's actually more a case of four 'Hoth' snow-troopers and two AT-AT crew!

Comparison shot with a few other puke-green figures!

Yeah, it's not very 'spacy' writting, but I haven't

imported all the stuff from the old laptop yet!

F is for Follow-up, R is for Return - Glow-in-the-Dark Aliens

Oh, we love a glow-in-the-dark Alien here! This post was originally a shot of the Toy Major's which had been kicking around for some time, along with a comparison we may have seen here already, but then I snaffled a Soma set, and it was 'Aliens are Go'!

That hanging-around image - I DID have notes on them somewhere - see glowing alien posts passim! It's not very good, and I've reshot them below, so it's just to get us started, Toy Major, glow-in-the dark 'UFO *Glow Power* Aliens', six poses and large'ish at around 70mm, a rigid polyethylene or polypropylene, which glows in the dark!

 

We saw a set of three figures when I ID'd a previously unknown group, and I was well chuffed to find a six-figure version, which obviously had more poses as I knew I'd only shown four or five in total, previously!

 

So I grabbed it while it was available, but have had to use the sales image on the left, as the shot I took was out of focus, and as you can tell from the scan on the right, I committed the mortal sin of opening the set, so I can't re-shoot it!

When I first showed these, I said I loved them, and that hasn't changed, I guess they date from the late 1980's or 1990's, possibly even closer to now, but they have an indefinable quality to them which reeks of the 1970's despite them not resembling anything from that time? I think it's the colour palette used, they are all sort of dirty, off-pastel shades of fruit-jelly or something!

 

We've seen these poses before, but glove-guy and three-fingers are new colourways, and I think even the grey is a different shade to the previous, paler one?

 

Here, the twin-armed one is a new, sixth sculpt, which will probably prove to be the extent of the sculpting, while the reaching-guy is a new colour, I think the other glove-guy is a duplicate of my original loose sample.

 

And the reason I committed the mortal sin of de-carding them is simply that I have a nice mint threesome, and the card was a bit tatty, while I will probably obtain more of these in the future, as I like them so much, and there are so many variations, a larger sample, whether carded or loose won't hurt!

Two colourways of the same pose, one I had here loose, the other from the set, so I now have five of this sculpt, in four different colours, and re. my previous comments on that, it looks like they will all eventually turn-up in all . . . ten (?) shades - light-glow, dark glow, greenish-glow, blue, light pink, dark pink, orangey-pink, orange, light grey and dark grey . . . that's eleven? We'll see, there may be more!

 

The upper-shot, which we did see a while ago, I've found it, but I think this was another from the sequence, shows the Toy Major, the modern/current pencil-top (yeah, even I think he's had too much publicity!), then a Soma, Imperial, US Toy (Brenner) and an unknown Chian-type novelty, not that they aren't all 'novelties'!

 

The lower shot shows the two sizes of Imperial, the Toy Major and the Soma, with one (also Toy Major - ID post forthcoming) who looks like he should glow in the dark, but is just screaming green!

Re-shot! You still can't really make out the faces, that's just the polymer-material/lighting/flash combining to thwart my efforts! They have large almond eyes orientated at about 45º, giving them a more sinister look than Manga-babes, whose almond-eyes are deliberately puppyish! The aliens' facial features/heads are also quite insectoid, a bit praying-mantis like?

An earlier shot of the Soma figurines was not so successful, I think my camera is starting to die, it will be the third or forth, this Blog has killed, but nothing lasts forever, and there are two to fall back-on, however they are both in storage, so I hope this one will go awhile yet, but it is starting to lose its edge, and it's not the constant reusing of the SD card, as there's a new 32GB one, put in there recently!

 

I should add that the two Nikon Coolpix have performed immeasurably better than the earlier pair of Fuji Finepix, there may have been a fifth, between the two pairs? While the two in storage are a cheap generic, and a minor make (Sony or AGFA?), so we'll see how they do, but they are all the same generation ('ish) and may see the Blog out . . . Although I do keep promising myself a digital SLR type, which can go on a stand and do the heavy-lifting, once I have a dedicated photo-bay/station?

It's an invasion!

Triple set - https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2022/02/f-is-for-follow-up-glow-in-dark-bug.html

Loose sample - https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2018/10/b-is-for-bug-eyed-aliens.html