B is for Big Box of Bounty - Sci-Fi, Cartoon, TV & Movie

And, so, sadly, we reach the end of the Chris's parcel plunder posts, with some very interesting or useful stuff, and some oddities, along with best in box, which might surprise some, but not those who 'get' me! It's all the fictional or funny stuff today!

 

Power Rangers - I think the two micro-vehicles are Micromachines, along with the Putty Patroller, while the smaller articulated chap (in the style of Polly Pocket or Action Fleet) is still unknown to me, although there are some in the bags we didn't look at in this past post, possibly Playmates, or someone like that? While the Black Ranger is from those key-ring capsule toys.

 

These are fascinating, probably from a generic rack-toy, they are somewhere between the Gordy-Pikit rack-toy Bi-Trons and more formal toy transformer types, two points of articulation at the shoulders, and frontal tampo-printing in silver and gold, I'll be looking out for their set on evilBay!

 

Similar fayre; a larger PVC-alike, marked-up to DIC Productions, Playmates and Tsurubaya, so 'Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad', and again articulated only at the shoulders, and a smaller robot, missing a foot (could have one in the spares somewhere, from non-branded versions, or a similar Kinder type plug-together?).

 

The 'Free Comic Day' over-print is referencing an extant 'thing', the next date, is this coming May (2026), so I guess this was a promotional or freebie associated with that event, in the past. The event seems to be active in the UK, but the outfit behind it is based in the USA.

 

A fine selection of Manzingers, Grandizers, Transformers and/or Decepticons . . . or other things entirely! On the left is a stamper, with the design on it's base underside, at the back are two of the pencil-tops, which may form the follow-up to this post, while in front are two of the little mini's issued in the US by Ace Acme, but probably found over here as either capsule toys in gum-ball machines, or Christmas cracker prizes?

 

While the pair to the right are more traditional Keshi, with one 'proper' marked one (in the flesh-pink polymer), fully deformed, and one bootleg, almost certainly from gum-ball capsules, in blue.

 

OK, so, best in box! But first, the others . . . Three at the back may be from a short-lived toy line called Battle of the Planets (?) or something similar, each fold-open planet came with a handful of aliens associated with it, then we have two role-playing war games figures, one marked Grenadier (on the left) and numbered A 588, which I just cannot find on the Lost Mini's Wiki? The other, half-painted, looking like Minifigs? To their right are two marked Mega Bloks, from a line which has escaped me; I know of the little submariner figures, but these are fully-based stand-alone space/alien types?

 

Which leaves the two little 18/20mm blobs! BEST IN BOX! Against all the other contenders (the four sailors, the putty-coloured guy with the charm-loop, the lovely Napoleon on horseback, the two kneeling khaki infantry . . . ), and the reason is this;

 

I have two already, although I didn't realise it. I have one similar to the red one here, which is in the unknown GI's, as a presumed 1 or 2 cent/pence gum-ball prize, and I have a more obvious female space figure in pink, which is halfway down this page, and kept in the unknown space zone, now I know they go together, and there's more to find!

 

With a robot type and another GI 'space marine' here, I now have four in three or four poses (my blue one may be the same as this red one?)! Does anyone else know anything about them, have you got a bigger sample? They are all very clean, so maybe not that old, but I've had mine for over thirty years? Again, possibly cracker novelties over here, and maybe the small tree-crackers, at that?

 

I thought the finger-puppet was a new, fourth pose, but it's a duplicate, so may be a candidate for future painting, and I had hoped to have a fourth pose in the follow-up, as I found one in gold-paint, days before Chris's parcel arrived, but can I find it again? Can I hell, I'm sure it's in Picasa somewhere, and I've poured over the dozen or so folders it should be in, but I can't find it again, so it'll have to wait!

 

The dull yellow one is a Pokémon I think, and was found towing the French wagon when I opened the box, I have no idea on the bright yellow chap, who's been rather washed-out by the flash (Ben 10?), and the other has been seen before, here at Small Scale World, and is a rubber-jiggler, best described as a duck-billed platterpenguin! He wouldn't stand up!

 

Marked Bandai, I know nothing else about the gold winged chap, the robot is from the Buck Rogers eraser set, through which, upon Blogging here a while ago, we realised Bushy the Coppice really had started his counter-blogging nonsense!

 

The tall guy, looking a little like Moorcock's hero Elric of Melniboné (in a blazer!)  is probably a relatively recent Gashapon figure of some Japanese TV 'anime'? While the figure on the ground is . . . 

 

. . . looking like a Star Wars knock-off of Princess Leia? She's either a poorly-moulded short-shot, or another of the sand-washed beach finds, I think that Deetail Arab, in an earlier post, was, and she may go with that set of green knock-offs which were posted around the Internet about 15-years ago; were they South American, or Japanese?

 

Cartoony bits include a Jolly Jumper, faithful mount of Lucky Luke, most of a Gantoy knock-off of Muffin the Mule, missing his nodding head, he's a first sample, so stays! The weird doll-thing is looked-at below, while the pig is from one of those pre-Kinder, Hong Kong, novelty animal families.

 

We've looked at the rabbit as a teaching aid, and the orange-red blob is a Mini Bogglin, there's actually a huge bag of them in the stash somewhere, so they will get a proper post one day, but it's not a priority here!

 

This 'doll', I've seen before, that chap who was doing the beach-combing displays of polymer-shite washed up in the West Country had one, less this weird one-piece, clip-over, romper-suit, like this one his was missing its head, so your guess is as good as mine, but numerous enough to be known by some - are you one of them?

 

Manta Force from Bluebird Toys, figures and robots, I think these are the 'bots attached to the sides of one of the larger toys in the range, as they are mostly missing their bottoms (tracked units), as they were interchangeable, in that larger set.

 

Two seasonal house-burglars and a Kinder gnome, I think the one on the left is all new to me/collection, not sure on the gnome, it was a multi-issue line which ran for several years (most of a decade?), so there are a lot to find, and I do have lots about the place, but I haven't brought them all together, or compared them to the Sammler Katalog's, yet!

 

Two Matchbox, late production (Universal) on the left, a Bluebird Havok needing a base on the right, and one of those odd rack-toy 'Walker' pilots we've seen here, along with a Dr. Who viral robot 'Cybermat', actually in a much larger scale, but useful!

 

Two characters from Pif Gadget, the French kid's comic, here manufactured by Brabo, but similar figures were issued by others including Yolanda, a Micky Mouse pencil top and a Donald who looks to be almost certainly Xandria from the Netherlands? He's seen better days and all four could use a clean, but a sample is a sample!

 

Many, many thanks to Chris for all this autumn's fine plunder, he doens't have to do this, and it does all provide answers (the 'Best in Box' for instance) as well as new questions, and with so much to find, it's only the help I get from Chris, Peter, Trevor, John, Adrian, Gareth and co., which helps us all, to get to that ultimate bigger picture.

S is for Seen Elsewhere - Sci-Fi Library (2) Kits, Movie Franchises and Movies

The other half of the Sci-Fi stuff I scanned a while back for elsewhere, and it's less about toys and more about research/information and some kit bits, I'll start with!

 

Mentioned when I showed the recent purchase of a late edit of his general list, this is Burn's Sci-Fi and Figures list, which as well as covering figures, also includes the odd dinosaur, monster, insect and bird kits etc . . . you see, off the back of little pamphlets like the original M.A.P./Military Modelling guide, Burn's and his co-respondents, did ALL the work, which sites like Scalemates took to the next level with their interactive member-pages and issue/brand timelines.

 

So when people bang on about a few dinosaurs and pretentiously add "Researched by . . . ", while adding a bunch of feeBay/Worthpoint images, understand it's just plagiarism! Pretending to do the work, actually done by other people thirty or forty years ago, while failing to credit them, is about as low as you can go . . . for a few clicks?

 

This is a Fine Scale Modeller 'special publication', which is really just a feast of exhibition-quality models, posed against realistic backgrounds or dioramas, and as such, is really another coffee-table book, but a rather nice one!

 

While this is a more general look at the smaller of the two 'big' enduring franchises, I've not got much invested in Star Trek, as there haven't been that many smaller-scale or solid figures in the pile of memorabilia issued over the years, but Playmates gave us small 'Action Fleet' types, there was that set I bought from Colin Penn at a Plastic Warrior show a few years ago, and the current (not in this book)  EMCE sets are still out there, so some stuff can be found in 'our' area of interest!

 

Then there's the other franchise . . .

 

This, minimally illustrated, is an encyclopaedic listing of everything known to hardcore-fans, from the release of the original movie, until the release of the final film in the second trilogy back in the 2005. After which, I think, due to first, the tsunami of new stuff and second, the coming of the Internet, updates became superfluous.

 

But Rebel Scum, the Internet fan-base, helped compile it, and it's THE list of pillow-cases, soaps, wallpapers, novelty lamps, and yes, toys and kits, from the early years of the Star Wars phenomena, though to, say, 2005 - nearly 30-years-worth of marketable tat, alphabetically listed, by manufacturer!

 

This only gets as far as the 1st/forth movie, and may be by the same Beckett? It's a tie-in with a then major Star Wars retailer, Beckett Hot Toys, and is arguably better illustrated than the previous, but more dated now by having the 1999 cut-off, in listed data.

These are really 'bestiaries' of one type or another, similar to the much more expensive, glossy, hard-backed, coffee-table 'technical manuals' which ran around the same time, but relying on mostly black-and-white line drawings. I use them to just find-out the names of things. Mostly from the first three 'classic' movies

 

While this is not one of the just-mentioned vintage technical manuals, but rather a more modern publication, best described as one section of the various Rebel Scum wiki's, in book form, and while it may be of use to you, I only bought it as a shelf-filler, because it was cheap, and can't remember it giving me anything useful, but that's in the context of me being the 'general reader' here, not a full Star Wars nerd!

 

While among the minor franchises, this is a useful tome, but then for collectors, Schiffier have never (? I stand to be corrected) produced a duff one, and I have maybe a dozen of their titles now? Like the Star Wars' ones above, this has non-toy stuff, and you find yourself remembering all sorts, as you flick through it!

 

While this pair are both bestiaries; the former using TV- and publicity-stills, the latter, more line-drawings, but helping to quickly identify two other franchise 'universes' I don't follow closely. There are several similar titles in the Tolkien 'zone', but that's never been with the toy books and wasn't shot with the rest, leave alone scanned with these! Add the Dungeons & Dragons guides, we saw while looking at the 'Gygax' stuff a while ago, and you've most of the monsters you could ever need!

 

While these two, are such useful research-tools I keep them with the collectables library, rather than the Sci-Fi/Fantasy library (where the Tolkien stuff is!), and do dip in them from time to time, especially when I can't remember the name of a movie or character which is on the tip of my tongue/in my peripheral thoughts!

There are lots of books like these, and I have more general ones, another on Westerns, and a very useful old film-library catalogue, from when clubs and societies could order films, in their 'cans', so show at schools, village halls or such-like.

 

We had a film-club at school, which anyone could attend, and I remember specifically seeing what were considered 'X' films, at the time, like Straw Dogs, the seminal Eastward movie The Beguiled, as well as fun stuff like Bugsy Malone and I think we had Once Upon a Time In the West? I think we had some Bond films too, I can't remember all of them, but we had two or three films per term, in the main hall, on a full-screen, this would have been 1977 - '80.

I is for Irreverence!

Time for another collection of Internet memes I've sidled away for such a rainy day, and it was a very rainy day today! I nearly published than last night, but gave up and went and did something else, somewhere else (photographed toys), however I found the last one, just now on Faceplant, and it spurred me to action!

 

Can't shoot, won't shoot!

 

The revenge of Tim Mee was brutal!

 

There are several R2D2 one's like this kicking about, but Bungle is priceless!

 

Noooooooooo!

 

I love his grin!

 

One of my oldest friends is taking parcel after parcel of HO-OO stuff in, for his brother, so the brother's wife (no names, no pack-drill!) doesn't cotton-on to how bad it's got, they are both in their 60's, so it's no great crime, but I immediately thought of them when I saw this!

 

Ooops!

 

Hot off today's internet, I thought the following comment, from a Gary Karst deserved to be wider-shared;

 

"It's commemorating the courageous efforts of the U.S. Army Corp of Landscapers in this underwhelming battle. Semper Ficus."

F is for Fake Toys & Games

I've been picking these up for about 18 months now, reposted a couple elsewhere, but I thought I'd chuck them all up here for a chuckle, there are a few political memes, but more general humour/satire, and about 50/50 AI-generated against older forms like Photoshop or actual artists arting!

 

These first five are all credited to a Brian Thomas Auker on one of the Faceplant AI groups, he really wants to get'em on tobacco, young! While the top one is a clever joke-within-a-joke!
 

Anti 'Reform' electioneering!

Oh yeah! Overdue I say . . . 

I had a whole load of Trump ones, but I'm not sure where I saved them to, I may have just reposted them straight to my Faceplant feed?

Jesús loves you, unconditionally, but if you don't love him back, he'll torture you in hellfire, until the end of time!

Fisher Price get the most grief in these memes, how have they earned so much opprobrium?

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!