T is for Toys-to-Life

A bit of a lazy post today (although it's involved a lot of editing!), and very much a joint enterprise, which has been in the queue since 2017, from whence all the images date, after early submissions from the Blog's roving reporter in New York, Brian Berke, in that February, through summer shelfies (from both of us, I think), to some scans of that years' Argos Christmas Catalogue. A situation not helped by both the passage of time and the fact we were, at the time, both using cameras with a default prefix on image titles of DSCN!

 

Also, everything here has already been replaced by NFC (Near Field [digital] Communication) games, lines and ranges, so it's all, already obsolete. And while the tardiness in publishing has been explained before (a lot has happened here at Small Scale World Towers in the last few years - and is ongoing), the subject is very peripheral to figure collection, and this is a mostly Wikipedia-worded box-ticker, overview or primer, covering the three main ranges, back in 2017.

 

And, no, I don't know where that eight-years went!

 

Fistley, the opening paragraph from this Wikipedia page;

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toys-to-life

 

"Toys-to-life is a video game feature using physical figurines or action figures to interact within the game. There are several technologies used to make physical figurines appear in game such as image recognition, quick response (QR) codes, Bluetooth and near field communication (NFC). Depending on the technology, the game can determine the individual figurine's proximity, and save a player's progress data to a storage medium located within that piece. It was one of the most lucrative branches of the video game industry especially during the late 1990s and 2010s, with the Skylanders franchise alone selling more than $3 billion worth over the course of four years."

 

While this Wikipedia page informs us of the above Skylanders game;

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skylanders

 

"Skylanders is a toys-to-life action-adventure video game franchise developed by American video game developer Toys for Bob and published by Activision. 

Skylanders games are played using NFC-enabled collectible figurines of playable characters, alongside a specially themed NFC reader dubbed the "Portal of Power", which reads and writes data stored on a microchip within the base of the figure. This includes the corresponding character to use during gameplay, as well as ingame [sic] upgrades and statistics, allowing figures to retain their game data across different games in the series.

Each Skylander is associated with one of ten elements: Earth, Air, Fire, Water, Magic, Tech, Life, Undead, Light, and Dark. Skylanders of different elements are stronger in certain areas of the game, and can unlock areas of the game hidden behind "Elemental Gates"." 

 

The next biggest was the Disney Infinity franchise;

 

Again from Wikipedia

 

"Disney Infinity (2013) was a toys-to-life series based on Disney characters and franchises. Since the initial game's release in 2013, there had been three installments [sic]. Disney Infinity was the first game, focusing on Disney and Pixar characters. In 2014, Disney Infinity: Marvel Super Heroes was released as the second game, which focused on Marvel characters and properties. The third game, 2015's Disney Infinity 3.0, centered [sic] on the Star Wars franchise. All Disney Infinity figurines could interact with various games in the series. The line concluded in 2016, when Disney announced that production of the series had officially ceased, and that there would be no more future titles. "Gold Editions" of each game have since been released on Steam, containing a majority of the original content with the toys integrated into the games."

 

The other big seller back then was the planet destroying polymer plagiarists . . .

 

. . . Lego, and their Dimensions.

 

Wikipedia again;

 

"Lego Dimensions (2015) was a toys-to-life game developed by Traveller's Tales that used physical Lego figures, featuring characters from various Warner Brothers and Lego franchises, as well as other third-party intellectual properties such as Back to the Future, The Simpsons, and many more. Some franchises, such as Adventure Time and Sonic the Hedgehog, had never seen releases in Lego format prior. The game involves a heavier emphasis on the physicality of the genre, with characters having vehicles that could be rebuilt into new forms, as well as mechanics that involved moving characters on the Toy Pad. No sequels were released, with new content being added through a series of "Year 2" updates. On October 23, 2017, Warner Bros. officially announced that they would not be developing further content for Lego Dimensions" 

 

and from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lego_Dimensions;

 

"Lego Dimensions is a 2015 toys-to-life platform video game developed by Traveller's Tales and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, for the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Xbox One, Xbox 360 and Wii U. It is a crossover between Lego and over thirty different franchises, from which levels can be played through a USB toy pad peripheral. The Starter Pack, containing the game, the USB toy pad, three minifigures and one vehicle, was released in September 2015, while additional level packs and characters were released over the following two years."

 

Obviously, Brian bought a Donald Duck for purely ornamental purposes, and why wouldn't you?! I know I hate Mickey and Mini, but I don't have trouble with the rest of them, although the whole Pluto/Goofy thing is a bit odd, and Donald having turkey for Christmas is downright disturbing!

 

These are starting to turn-up in mixed lots, at Car Boot Sales, or in small Charity Shop bags, but I actually try to avoid them as the rigid bases (where all the electronics are) mean even loose, they take up a lot of space, and there may be a future session of debasing those I have picked up, as the figures are often very good examples of the art. Also, the electronic exchange shops (like CeX, geddit: these kids are soooo edgy!) still tend to have cabinets full of them, as many people still play with them, even if they're now discontinued.

 

Many thanks as always to Brian for his help with these, at some point we will return to them, I'm sure, but not a great priority, they are electronic gaming pieces, not strictly toy figures!

T is for TAG

Which may or may not have stood for something longer like 'Toby and Garry' or 'Turner and Griswold' but nobody seems to know? The general acceptance being that it just refers to the tags they came with, but I feel it may be a chicken-and-egg conundrum, especially with the capitalisation of the TAG, on the tags!?

 

RAF Regiment, Royal Armoured Corps, Infantry (with a camouflaged beret!), and the Parachute Regiment, done in what is almost a Belgian (Durso) style, the same sculpt being used with different paint on the berets to represent several of the main protagonists of the British Army in the then, just finished, World War.

 

The reverse of the tags have a small thumbnail sketch or written vignette of the unit/figure represented. Their post-war issue being revealed in the text - 'served', and 'earned', in the past tense.

 

 

 

The officer corps were also represented, and here we see a standard Army officer, and RAF 'wallah' and their corresponding tags, the arms of the flyboy are uncomfortably wrong, in that the left arm should be slightly forwards, in time with the right foot.

Our Allies were also modelled, and here we see two GI's, and it's nice to see them in both 'white' and African American skin-tone paint-jobs, because we appreciated everyone who helped. Although without the tags, the black soldier may have been representing Brazil, who sent troops to the Italian campaign?

 

This seems to be a better rendition of an Infantry beret, but again, might be representing Canada or something like that, I don't know how large the series was, or how many nations were represented?
 

A comparison between the two shows a marked size discrepancy between the different mouldings, and is that a fledgling (at the time) UN flash on the GI's shoulder, maybe he's the Brazilian?

Ceremonial uniforms of both our own and allied armies, with a 'Highlander' (no specific regiment given) and a Cossack. I have one in another colourway somewhere (seen on the blog years ago) and have seen others, there may be as may as four different treatments of the decoration on this sculpt, even six - black, red, and white coats, with reverse versions?

 

A difficult subject, the Cossacks, as they fought in large numbers on both sides, mounted troops being very useful in winter snow, and for covering distance over the steppes in summer. Those fighting with us, were of Russian descent, those fighting agin' us, were fighting for Ukrainian Independence rather than in support of Nazism, while atrocities were committed by both sides.

 

The Women's Royal Army Corps weren't forgotten . . .

 

. . . and both the Monkeys and Snowdrops got a look-in!

Quality of finish varies, my Cossack is so tough or dense, and so smooth I thought he was resin, for years! While the figure on the left is a much rougher moulding, almost as lumpy as the worst examples of wood/linseed composition figures.

 

The first four again, showing the berets a bit better, the Para's is far too dark, as well as the odd Infantryman's two-tone headdress! Also showing the identical obverse of the tags through this sample, I don't know how many series' there were, or even if they ever got round to a Series 2?

 

     

T is for Tente - Tank Transporter and Tail-ends

So, the last of the Tente stuff in the car-booty found by Peter Evans back in the Summer, and it's 'most of the rest', of what seems to have been a ten-kit set, although I've got bits of naval vessels in the same 'army' green, still not a colour offered, in any quantity, by Lego, so the full range may have gone to 12 or 15 boxes?

 

The tractor unit is vaguely based on the Kynos Aljaba 8×8, but that was an 8x8 (obviously) not a 6x6, so it's a very loose resemblance, some Soviet tractors look similar, but usually with a closed cab, as do/are the Faun SLT's of the Bundeswehr.

 

With the trailer, which is even more generic!

Always hard to photograph tank transporters (or large ship models), simply because of the horizontal dimensions! But these give you some idea. The previously seen Tanque, and the Ambulance, before I had found its loose bits and reattached them!

 

It came with its own (2nd model) tank, the bulk of which was missing from the car boot find, and which is closer to the ex-US Patton or Pershing M46/47 & M48/M60's that were common in the Spanish inventory for the bulk of the post-war/Cold War era. But most of the turret was in the bag, and with the barrel off the other, I could produce that, for a photograph!

 

Alternate suggestions mostly involve slight tweaks to the configuration, but the half-tracked transporter is spacey! While the tank becomes a chunky-monkey personnel carrier or wheeled tank.

 

The ephemera awaiting scanning, includes a half-track which was also missing, however, I think bits of it might have been in the less-than-colour-matched ambulance truck, we saw at the start of this sequence.

 

 Reverse of its instructions include a vague weapons-platform, and a cargo-truck.

 

Missing numbers are the Missile Helicopter, a quadruple SPAAG, based, clearly, on the Soviet-era ZSU-32-4, while, not illustrated anywhere here, was a large 8x8, wheeled APC, coded #0751, which was probably the weakest model in the range - body too big for the wheels, giving it a very open and top-heavy look.

 

All the important bits of the helicopter (cockpit, rotor, tail, skids) were also in the bag, with a handful of bricks which may have been helicopter, but may have been half-track, if you were to follow the instructions! Another bag of bits and a pair of the shorter tracks, and I will be able to complete both!

So, many thanks to Peter for spotting these, and saving them for the Blog, something a bit different!

T is for Teixido Return!

Yes, a rather too-cheerful title given my views of bullfighting, but they have to be posted, and while I hate the 'sport' and the idea of it still being a thing in the 21st Century, I take heart in the fact that another Matador was gored to death the other day (at least he got to feel how the bulls felt), and two others have quit, publically, in the ring! One breaking down and sobbing, at the enormity of what he'd been doing, all his adult life, to innocent, proud, confused animals.

 

We'll start at the end . . . of the bull. It's all about the killing of bulls, and, the longer the fight, the weaker the bull gets, so the final flourish, and the applause of the bloodthirsty crowd is utterly pointless, as the bull's so weak by that point it's almost a mercy killing, for what the fighters have been doing for the previous . . . twenty minutes; hour; two hours? I don't care how long the fights take, they are barbarous.

 

These are the Teixido figures (I think? They may go with the Jecsan below?) we last saw on someone else's table with me pointing out I didn't have any, I now have a decent sample, and we're going to look at them now, along with a few others, that have come-in over the last couple of years!

 

Two more mounted figures which I think go with the Teixido set, but I'm not sure, some of them are more rubbery, others are 'ethylene, and while some have separate arms, others don't! And all the horses were polyethylene, but not all the riders went on all the horses!

 

Theses are all Teixido, and there was some judicial swapping of arms, between shots, to get everyone looking correct, and a few bodies didn't get photographed as their arms clearly weren't here! The last one is correct, I think, but the camera-angle makes him look like his plug-in arm is growing out of his back!

 

The guy on the right in the first shot, can be posed to be dragging his red-rag behind him, as we saw last time we looked at these. 

 

I think these are all Jecsan, although one has a more Reamsa style base, so I stand to be better informed on all these, but the whole 'bullfighting zone' sample is quite big now, and when it's all brought together we'll have a proper look at all of them, and compare with the various catalogue images in the archive, to get them all grouped correctly! In fact, I think the standing bull is the Teixido.

 

Jecsan horse, I think, not sure on the rider, who seems to be some kind of referee or officiator? He has a separate cloak, so may also be Teixido.

 

Comparison between a Comansi (?), unknown, unpainted one (which keeps turning up and may be a touristy thing?) and the Teixido horse, his padded-armour/blanketing is of finer etching/sculpting.

 

Jecsan with a Reamsa'ish base, a tourist keepsake, we saw another one (white, plug-on base), years ago, and one of the Teixido's. The tourist one is a polystyrene, hard-plastic solid, with metal pin inserted.

 

Further comparison, with the Torres wine premium on the left and one of the unknown small-scales from 2024's Plastic Warrior show plunder on the right, for some reason I swapped out the Teixido but not the Jecasn?

 

Hong Kong
Seen before, but cropped-tight and lacking the now-dead link to the auction!

 

I had the Jecsan stuff here, but the Comansi and Reamsa stuff is in storage, or on a dongle I can't be bothered to look for, right now! The reamsa'ish base one is it the ring, facing the other way, so he is Jecsan, but no sign of the towing vignette, the Referee, or a dead bull, so that probably is all Teixido after all!

 

While the two we saw yesterday aren't in these scans, so probably are Reamsa, as the Comansi's have bigger bases - it's not made any easier by them all four using the same gloss orange on the bases! I guess, after a thousand years, all that bull's blood has darkened the sand?

 

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Imagine if these colourful, dynamic, civilian figures could still be collected, but as 'historical' subjects, rather than examples of man's ongoing cruelty, and inhumanity to everything around him?