D is for Donation - Chris - [Not] Paratroops!

The exception which proves the rule! As we saw Chris's most recent parachute toy finds/donation in a post at the end of April, I thought we'd look at the civilian vehicular portion of the last parcel, and there haven't been any in the three recent tranches from Peter, so it all sort of balances out!

 

Vessels, and we have an all new - to me - sailing ship, possibly a game-playing piece, or just a novelty? A variation of Hong Kong mini bath-toy to its right, both versions of cereal premium baking soda submarine, and  Marx Miniature Masterpiece rubber boat, all good stuff!

 

Five of the Quaker cereal premiums at the back, two of the commoner Hong Kong Minic knock-offs. but in the less common blueish-sea green, and another of the forward sloping prow vessels, which were new to me, when we saw a silver one recently (probably also from Chris), this pink suggesting the bottom-end of rack toys, such as those parachutists who would come in a bag with a couple of aeroplanes and a cyclist or something . . . something like this ship?!

 

Another pair of cereal premiums, this time the R&L plastic-kit types of US locomotives, from different sets I think, and a similar Hong Kong effort in black, all three are in polystyrene.

 

A couple of Kinder or Kinder-like racers in the foreground, with something more interesting behind, it's in the style of a blow-mould, but is actually PE mouldings, plugged-together, however, what Chris would like to know (as I would), is . . . 

 

. . . who made it? It's clearly marked 'Made in Finland', and there can't be that many Finnish toy makers; we've heard of one or two, in the Space Toy business, courtesy of a loyal reader, on the Blog passim, but does anyone know who made this?

 

Micro-stuff included a Star Wars Micro-Machine, and one of the MPC 'minis' copies, out of Hong Kong, all useful grist-to-the-mill, and one day we will look at all the Micro-Machine stuff in better detail.

 

Vehicular jalopies aplenty! Game-playing piece, back left, I think (one of those car-park/traffic jam puzzle-games?), bits of some Kinder or similar model railway vehicles, a soft-plastic copy of the old dime store 'Morris Mini-Minor', the die-cast is a Hong Kong take on a Marx or Tootsie Toys mini, I suspect, while the charm-looped actual 'jalopy' is probably a cracker toy.

 

It's funny ironic too, as it's probably taken from those Japanese slush-cast minis carried by Shackman and others, while it is also aping the actual silver, or plate charm objects, of the sort well-to-do young ladies collected on a bracelet?

 

Back, centre is an interesting, all-plastic American muscle-car type (or Japanese sports type?), marked 280 ZX Fairlady, which Google revealed is a Japanese model - the eponymous Datsun-Nissan to be accurate, I don't know anything about the maker of the toy version though, do you?

 

Interesting, but very large, and will probably end-up on the swaps page, this is a Play Craft [sic - usually Playcraft] large-scale ('Big', G-gauge or LGB) hopper-car, for an all plastic floor/garden railway, the wheel-base however seems to match the soft ethylene infant railway, which shared the gauge of Brio wooden sets!

Heading to the card and paper tub (a Really Useful Box 35lt job), these are a pleasant mystery! Not apparently configured for slotted-wooden stands, but having clearly had the home-cut fragments of magnetised rubber sheet added by an owner, I don't recognise the characters, but they would seem to be recognisable comic creations? Can anyone add anything that might serve as a further clue? Batman?

 

A Gerry Anderson tie-in from Allen Industries; Super Car, see comments.

 

Thanks again to Chris for all these, the highlights, for me, are probably the pink vessel and the card bits, it's always nice to see things you've never seen before! Although a racing car from Finland is pretty special!

W is for Wroxham Miniature Worlds

This was going to be part of a twin posting/comparison with the 'museum' at Mountfitchet, but things took a darker turn at that establishment, and for now I'll stuff it inconveniently under the carpet, and instead you can enjoy this as a stand-alone!

 

The shots Chris Smith took on a visit to the Wroxham Miniature Worlds attraction up in Norfolk, just NE of Norwich . . . 

----------------------------------------------

 

"From the outside the building looks like an industrial unit with entrance via a propped open fire door escape, I knew entry price was £13.95, did think about not going in... But took the plunge.

Very well laid out displays, some massive model railway scenic setups. Not my thing but couldn't help but be impressed by the standard of work involved in creating them, 100's of plastic buildings and 1000's of small figures included. All the trains controlled by a central PC program.

A number of working flight and driving simulator PC games from the 80/90's set up to try. I was useless at these back then so passed on trying."

"Good Scalextric track and display. Pelham Puppets, another massive collection on display. Huge vintage Star Wars action figure collection, figures, vehicles and boxes"

 

"Only other plastic figures I spotted were four Britains RNLI boats and crew in with some other, larger model ships."

"The Lesney/Matchbox bus was amazing, the sheer amount of vehicles was staggering. They do need to improve the lighting in this and the head height is an issue if you're over 5' 9" having to stoop on both levels."

 

 

 

"A small display of more general toys of interest were Magic Roundabout Figures, Sooty & Friends cereal premiums and a strange space bike with no rider, approx 1/32 scale that I'm sure would know the maker." [MPC Fireball XL5]

 

"Massive Lego display, from vintage Lego city to more recent lines of  Star Wars, Pirates of the Caribbean, Harry Potter etc."

 

"Knitting! Not my thing, but impressed with the level of detail and work involved."

 

[Excellent use of a mirror-back display cabinet, to visually double the size of the diorama]

 

"Airfix models, poor display, obviously not loved. Poor quality build and a bit battered now. Were a few Airfix painted 1/32 figures and 1/72, but at ground level and hard to see.

 

One of my favourites was a collection of penny arcade machines all in working order, old pennies available via a change machine a £1 for ten, which I enjoyed spending. 

 

Overall, I'd recommend it to anyone if you're in the area on holiday or in Norfolk visiting/working. Personably disappointed by the lack of plastic figures."

----------------------------------------------

 

To which I'll add my tuppenny's worth, firstly thanks to Chris for sending all this to the Blog, and secondly, it appears to be a much better curated and displayed than others I have seen, the Airfix 54mm case, not withstanding!

S is for Supermarionation Supercar!

After looking at the Camberwick Green figures the other day - another set of figures widely held to have been made by the Marx plant in Swansea (or sourced by them from the Hong Kong arm of the global brand) are these characters from the Gerry Anderson 'Spermarionation' TV series; Supercar.

Supercar was the first of Gerry's Supermarionation children's television series, running for 39 episodes between 1961 and 1962 (so these toys are older than me?!!) and set the tone for all the subsequent Anderson puppetry oeuvre - a super sci-fi unit with wacky stuff solving an insurmountable problem (half caused by them) inside 40 minutes with a cool groovy vehicle or two!

 

The figures were supplied with a plastic model of the eponymous Supercar, and are presented here with one figure missing: Mitch the Monkey! He's the idiot who half caused the emergency most weeks (sometimes Wikipedia is actually useful - well!...I wasn't born then!)

Like the missing Mitch; the four other Characters are in a dense creamy-white polystyrene, painted in the style of Marx Miniature Masterpiece or Tinykins, and - from the 40mm figure on the left - represent:

'Aeronaut' Mike Mercury (steely-jawed hero)

Dr. Horatio Beaker (Popkiss's assistant)
Jimmy Gibson (annoying brat)
Professor Popkiss ('Brains' [Geditt] behind this version of the Anderson universe)

The missing monkey being around 20mm and the smallest, I think there was a torso of Mike in the vehicle in a darker paint scheme, the likelihood of my ever having one in good nick to show here is doubtful...but I'm sure it will turn up on Moonbase Central - if it hasn't already!

The carded toy was sold by/issued (distributed) under the title/brand of Cecil Coleman, London, N1. and I've included a paint variant of Beaker and an early mould-release shrinkage variant of Mike below.