M is for May's Visit - Boxed and Carded

In addition to the stuff I bought on the day, Peter had also encountered some rack-toy and other stuff, which he put to one side for me, and with the next Rack Toy Month a while away, they can go here!

 

I think we've seen the Unique set before, but the stretchysaurs from Tobar are all new. Similar to others we've seen here, but a bit bigger. And with several comparison shots of these party-favour type monochrome beasts, in the smaller scale, now seen here on the Blog, I think the first image is the 'missing link'! 

 

KTL Topco Limited would appear to be a trading name for Kandy Toys, they share the same business park and postcode address/es, and this larger-scale set may give us a clue to one or two of the many mini-sets, as that bright pigmented spray, over a greyish-white synthetic PVC, is seen in mini-sets of Dinosaurs, sea-life and wild animals?

 

I think Peter really just wanted off'ski for this, and I said I'd try to offload it, but I didn't really know how, then I realised the gazebo/folly, and a couple of the other elements, might make useful photo-props in the future, so for now it's in the storage unit!

 

There used to be a chap who specialised in Bayko (it's not Bakelite, it's polystyrene!) around the shows, but I haven't seen him or his distinctive Bayko knitted-jumper for a while, probably not since . . . well,  lockdown, so I fear the worst - when you look at the Blogs which haven't uploaded/posted for five years, you realise Covid cut a bit of a swathe through old toy collectors, I'm afraid.

 

Many thanks to Peter for all these.

D is for Did I Mention Bagshot Garden Centre?

As well as the erasersaurs, I found a few other items of Rack Toy Month'able Blogging potential, up at Longacre's vast site on the old A30, and them be these . . .

 

Dimetrodon, one of several in the 'assortment', but obviously the one to come home with me! Quite a good one too, with the dog-like countenance which the better books tend to give this particular beast! Issued by an outfit called Free & Easy of the Netherlands

 

A colour variation of the freebie I got from the Keycraft Rep', back in February, which means (with the holy-cheese and pair of mice) that I've gone from none to three of this genre in less than six months!

 

Also keycraft (same display/dispensing 'tree'), are these, the latest edition of a set we saw a few years ago, in different colours, I hope, I think there was a yellow or blue one, but two yummy-mummy/trophy-wives were standing in the way of the stand, chattering away with three brats and a pram, five minutes from closing with no awareness of the rest of the world whatsoever, so I could only grab what looked to be one of each (it was!), without worrying about colours!

 

 

I also got these - Rex London, ostensively for the Jig-Toy page, but they can go here first, and I'll re-shoot them for there, another day. I did do a bit of an update of that page back in the spring, and can't remember if I said anything at the time, but there is a load more content on that page if you haven't visited it for a while!

R is for Rack Toy Round-Up - North America - Three is Supernumerary

More rack toy shelfies from Brian Berke, he found all these in Dollar Tree I think, and all figural, with 'Action', stretchy and 'Solid' types to suit most tastes!

 

Wall Walkers, unusual, in being solid, swivel-waist figures, with the sticky 'walking' compound attached as blobs to hands and feet, rather than the more usual form of an all-sticky figurine!

 

Although not a bendy, this guy looks like a perfect foil for the stretchy astronaut we saw a couple of months ago from Keycraft!

 

Generics? Their names all begin with 'M'!

 

Another of the Power Ranger's we saw the black one of, in a previous post from Brian.

 

Disney!

 

I'm not sure how this would work as a Yo-Yo, and I've tried to avoid PJ Masks and Paw Patrol here, but the longer they remain popular characters, the more likely they are to creep into the content from time to time! And I don't know anything about them - are they some male version of Power-Puff Girls?

 

This would find a place in the collection; appears to be a sculptural solid? There's a lot of adults buying toys these days, more for lifestyle signalling/decoration, than pure collecting, and this sort of thing is very much aimed at them, for a mantle or windowsill, or a display cabinet in the hall Monster High!

 

Three-inch, four-inch? Look out GI Joe's, Barbie is looking for a husband and she has expensive tastes!

 

Peppa . . . removed from Douyin (China) due to her association with 'gangster' subcultures and the creation of subversive memes!

 

Many thanks to Brian for all these, there's more to come, probably two more posts, so nicely inside Rack Toy Month, while I think the Gygax Monsters will slide into September! 

M is for Mostly Stretchies!

I thought, given what else is there, that there would be some Henbrandt in the archive of previous show visits, but there isn't, it seems we covered it all at the time, but when they have stuff to shoot, it's usually stuff of interest, and while ephemeral or novelty in nature, this is true for what I shot this year up at the NEC.

 

Finger Monsters = finger fun!

 

Some nice figural Halloween stuff here, I never seem to find it out there in stores, the UK being very bad at this kind of stuff, which makes much better 'treats' than more tooth-acid, but it must be out there somewhere, if you have a better party-shop than my locals, check them out in October?

 

More by accident than design, we've covered both version of their small animal sets over the years, quite thoroughly! But here's another shot, 'cos you can't have too many!

 

? Sort of figural shots, I fired-off, but really just novelty rings.

 

Snakes & Skeletons

 

Lizards & Smileys

 

Skeleton box, but they are Mummies

I think we saw the flicky Superheroes in Hawkin's Bazaar?

 

Frogs & Dinosaurs

 

Mixed jungle animals I'll be looking out for,

and black & white Rats

 

I wonder how many colour-change items there are in the stash, not having a habit of giving everthing a hot bath when it comes in to the collection, I wouldn't know unless someone told me?! All-in-all, a few bits of interest, one way or another.

K is for Keycraft - Spring Fair, Earlier This Month

So, to the reason for clearing all the previous shots out of Picasa! This year they had a very big stand at Birmingham, and I shot a lot of stuff, the doing of which resulted in a useful conversation and the two free samples (squidgy mice and bendy astronaut) we've already looked at, a while ago, the posting of which led to Wood's juvenile reaction!

 

That spaceman for the last time, with some squeezy/stretchy Shuttles!

 

Stretch [Neil] Armstrong! He's transparent and filled with a clear liquid, which seems to have light-enhancing/magnifying properties, so you get maximum reflections off the glitter suspended in the filling, so he glistens like some universal god-head in a home-remake of 2001 - A Space Odyssey! He also comes in a purple shade.

 

Huge spiders, actuallu quite realistic red-Legged, bird-eating, Tarantulas, for when you want to make your mother hate you for a week, by coming up behind her at the sink and saying, "Look what I found, can I keep it!"

 

Those wooden robots are still in the inventory, and someone has folded some of these up so you can see how they fold and turn many ways.

 

The Hedgehog thing! Sqishies.

 

The golden fleece is still there!

 

Giant insects and another spider!

 

Squishy cats.

 

Smaller, but still large insects, with caterpillars.

 

The Dinosaur 'toob', they don't seem to have any others (farm, zoo, sea-life etc.)?

 

Bigger Dinosaurs.

 

The set we've seen here several times now, nice sculpts, with simple paint schemes which keeps them cheap. I'll try to get them all as I want to compare them with that WHSmith set from a few years ago, the poses are different, but the painting is similar, the eyes especially, and they may be two halves of a larger Chinese line?

 

Another line of medium-giant Insects!

 

New packaging or a third line? I think they're new?

 

Distribution point. I think the new Toyhouse in Basingrad has a two-sided one?

 

Butterfly inclusion-balls.

 

Giant slugs!

 

So, that's Keycraft properly represented on the Blog, and up-to-date on outstanding posts. I'll try to find the other Dinosaurs in the medium-sized set (there's only four illustrated on their website, and I've found at least eight different ones so far), and keep an eye on them, as they have had some cool stuff over the years, and will continue to, we hope!

 

Link - https://keycraftglobal.com/