P is for Paint Your Own! These Are Mine!

The reason I was light on critique, running through the earlier posts today, was that I wanted to bring them all together as it'll be god knows when we look at them again, and because I'd not shot the rears or obverse sides in the earlier photo-shoot! Call it loose-ends!

So . . . are they worth getting? Yes.

Firstly - if you do what I did and buy the deal-pairs they work out at £1.25p each; per figure. Now the average price - of all the figures in a sizable collection - is around £1, once you add up all the single figures, bags of shite, expensive lots, five of these for a tenner, 8 of those for a fiver, "Give us a couple of quid" (15 figs when you get them home and count them), charity-shop bags, it's about a pound a figure on the year, say. . . and let's be honest here: A) that's the intrinsic value at most, and B) that should be what you're always aiming for, this isn't Mesopotamian antiquities we're collecting here!

That's for the 54-60-mil bracket of course; it's about 50p per figure if you're a small scale collector, it used to be about 10p averaged over the year, but the big bags of HK shite don't happen anymore and I regularly watch mixed, loose, lots of HK/Airfix/Revell/Esci getting bid-up to silly-money on evilBay, so it's about 50p now.

Therefore one-twenty-five for brand-new, larger scale figures is a bargain.

Secondly, they are worth having, they are mostly decent sculpts, original designs (question mark over the Dinosaurs) and of a reasonable size for one task or another whether adorning a self, joining war-games armies, or getting a starring role in role-play!

Thirdly, they might very-well help bring youngsters into the collecting fold.

These are a tad on the small side for 54mm, at around 50mm dead, but they are delicate little princesses, so having a slighter countenance whilst standing next to your Starlux Napoleonic officer types won't be that incongruous?

They are single mouldings (only the Magical Beasts are multi-part), quite well-done, not very cartoony and 'different', these are nice figures, will paint-up well and are definitely worth a punt.

The real disappointment is this set. Don’t get me wrong, it's savable, they will make worthy role-play or D&D type character figures, the Centaur is a bit too-chunky to join the Merten versions, even though the scale's about right.

But overall, this set is cartoony in execution, it's not severe and can be hidden with paint, but it's also flashy (the only flashy set) and will need a lot of 'cleaning-up' and then there's this problem with the separate components not fitting and while I've had half a go at two of them, they'll all need work.

It's a shame because they are relatively unique in this vague scale range of 28-40mm (ignoring the [baby] Dragon!), it's like they came from another factory . . .well they probably did, no; that's not strictly true; I think the Princesses and the Magical Beasts share an origin, but the Princesses - being stand-alone sculpts - are more easily, better finished.

I'm glad I've got a set, but it's definitely caveat emptor if you go and buy them, I'm not recommending this set - sadly. The Griffon and the Werewolf/Ogre will probably swing-it if you do decide to buy!

Which is a point worth making actually; the book-box covers do lift; in-store, so you can check the contents of all the sets before you purchase.

Happy to recommend this set though, if Dinosaurs are your thing, these are lovely, the plates of the Stegosaur - for instance - are very fine, rigid enough to hold their shape, yet soft enough to escape rough-handling damage, surface detail is fine and they remind me of the WHSmith ones a couple of years ago, or those nicely painted ones which keep turning up in different pound-shop brands, TK Maxx et al.

While these are almost the cream of the crop, I'll try and track down an answer to the 3/4 sculpts question mark (Google says: x2 duplicate pose . . . fussa-russa!), but they are lovely sculpts, the horns are a bit disappointing, but if you remove them, you instantly have some really nice-looking horse-flesh, or if you texture them (the horns) and paint them up they'll look equally good as larger unicorns in 28/40mm scenarios or small unicorns in 54-60mm settings.

They are 35mm to the shoulder and about 50 to the crown, and may be copies of the Breyer 'Horse Crazy Surprise Horse Painting Kits' range of blind-bag craft collectables, with an added horn?

For the hell of it! Nine colours to work with if you purchase all four sets, but there are other sets as I said earlier today and maybe the owls or one of the plaster-casting sets have a grey, light-brown or some other colours?

All four sets are piled-high in The Works; Fleet, Basingrad and Farnborough in the last few weeks and still there last time I looked, go; check 'em out for yourselves, don't take my word for it - it's only an opinion! And if you wouldn't be seen dead buying stuff like this in the high-street . . . they'll start turning-up, badly painted, in mixed lots at car-boot sales or in charity shops in about 18-months time!

P is for Paint Your Own Unicorns

From the cover you'd be forgiven for thinking this was going to be wetter that the Princesses, someone in the marketing office came to the same conclusion, with the result the models have been put on the cover, which is useful!

Of the four sets today though; this is both the best of sets and the worst of sets, but it's all marginal!

Same as the others - only different!

Same as the others etc...

So, to 'the best of sets'; these are some of the nicest Unicorns out there, dense PVC with all the properties of polyethylene, they are anatomically horse-like, with fine detail well moulded. However; there appears to be only three poses with the first and third being the same.

It's hard to tell from the cover, but I think the one at the back left is a Photoshoped version of the one in front of it? I will check the remaining sets in the shop however just in case it's a mistake (as if they are different, or supposed to be; they are similar in every way; other than those two rear legs, and fit the shaped blister tray), yet, the box does state 4 unique models?

But also to 'the worst of sets'; the booklet has a collection of very simple games and puzzles, while the paints have two reds and two blues leaving little for wider artistic scope, but the 'projects' are all in the pallet of the cartoon artwork, so it's of no consequence if that's what you've bought them for!

Even the backdrop is the poorest of the four . . . won't stop me reusing it at some point!

As last! I would also point out that all the booklets have a separate RRP on the back cover, stating £4.99, so may be (or may have been) available separately somewhere at some point? With the whole set also RRP'd - to 12.99; two-for-ten-pounds are a bargain.

P is for Paint Your Own Dinosaurs

There are various other sets within the Activity Station range, there's even another set in the Paint Your Own theme - Owls (! Should I?), but with at least two peg-doll sets, various cheapie-Playdoh-substitute related sets, plaster-casting, beads and the like they are well worth a look if you are shopping for younger relatives in the next week or two.

Third Time Today!

Third Time Today!

Scenic backdrop - Check! Four PVC Models - Check! Camera - Check! Batteries - Check! Photograph - Check! Stegosaurus - Check! Brachiosaurus - Check! Triceratops - Check! Tyrannosaurus - Check!

The models are denser PVC and differ from the others we've looked at today (which are all unmarked) in another way, they are clearly marked down the belly "MADE IN CHINA", they also look similar to other dinosaur models, but without comparing all the boxes of them it's not an easy call - there are thousands of toy & model dinosaurs out there, yet the bulk of them only cover about 15-20 'headline' species and three poses; standing, walking and running, so they do all look similar!

The booklet this time covers various dinosaurs (in addition to the four 'project' breeds) with thumbnail sketch-biographies and there's a simplified timeline of the eras. The graphics of the booklet are firmly geared toward a Jurassic Park meme, while the box is attempting a more 1950's pulp-look I think, but not that successfully.

With black, white, the three primaries and green; I think the Dinosaurs get the best six-pot, paint-selection of the sets we've looked at.

Third Time Today!

P is for Paint Your Own Magical Beasts

No - Once you've painted them they won't help you win the lottery or stop that bloody Walters' [with a s!] blogging, they're not that kind of Magical Beasts, the word they needed was 'mythological', but it's too long and complicated for the target age-group of The Works 'Paint You Own' Activity Station sets from Top That Publishing/Tide Mill Media. But mythological they are.

Did I say earlier that they are seven-quid each or two-for-ten-pounds, in The Works now; this one is aimed as squarely at boys as the previous one (posted below) is at girls, and it's no good quoting some califon-eye-ay PC bollocks at me, some things are as old as the hills and gender-preference is one of them, sure tomboy girls will love this set and glass-haired Quentin's will want a set of Princesses . . . well; I've got one and I 'aint no nancy-boy! What-choo sayin'? Ooo's the daddy round 'ear!

Same format, same pack-drill; artwork is Hobbit'esque, the mighty Smaug, a bit of a disappointment when you see the model!

Four models, 6 paints, brush, booklet, card backdrop . . . tray . . . book-like box.

The figures; this time we have (from the left again) a Dragon, Centaur, Werewolf and Griffon, so two from heraldry and two more fairy-tail/fantasy types.

You may have spotted in the previous shot that these are more complicated models, with the problem of undercuts solved with multi-part construction; these have been fettled badly (if at-all?) and then seemingly glued in a hurry with no effort, as a result they are relatively easy to pry apart and trim to fit, before being glued together again.

I glued them with my go-to for PVC; plumbers sealant. The brand I'm using at the moment is Polypipe SC125 Solvent Cement (active ingredient: bisphenol A-epichlorohydrin epoxy resin [AV MW<700]) which wealds PVC instantly. However it's an old tub and has started to dry-out, so it needs to be blobbed-on with a toothpick, which fills the joins nicely as it shrinks tight on fully drying (overnight).

You can also see the 'Werewolf' looks more like one of those alligator troopers from 2000AD (was it the Judge Cal storyline?) and will make a better troll or ogre or even 'The Beast' for a Paint Your Own Princesses' 'Beauty'.

The Centaur got the same treatment and the other two need work, but I did these two for the photo-shoot!

Confirming the brush quality compared to the quality of the usual 'craft brush' efforts, it's a synthetic squirrel or sable, and won't last long, especially if you use it with old school spirit enamels, but for the purpose at hand, not too shabby at all!

This time we get a green, but at a cost to the blue, which one needs for all the other blues, and purples, so a bigger remiss?

This booklet gives potted histories of other mythical (Unicorn), fantasy (Ents), folklore (Black Shuck) and even horror (Dracula) beasts between the painting 'projects'. The fold/crease-distressing on the booklet and box is deliberate graphics, not my having sat on them for years!

Another useful scenic backdrop we will see again occasionally.

Again; the Consumer Info. panel for those who want it, and you may have worked out by now that there's more to come . . . Dinosaurs in a while!

P is for Paint Your Own Princess

Currently in The Works for seven-quid, or two-for-£10, but going fast in the consumer-fest which precedes the celebration of the non-birthday of the Little Baby Jesus, are these 'Paint Your Own' sets with four figures to paint, contents are 100% China, but the whole thing [idea/concept?] is licensed to Top That Publishing and copyrighted to Tide Mill Media at the same address.

We're talking princesses, and if you think there's more than a passing resemblance between these 'generic' princesses (hey; you get four of 'em in one place - and they become pretty generic!) and the princesses of a certain Florida-based culture entertainment house, you'll be on the nail!

Attractively packaged for the coming season, the cover lifts to check the contents which pull from under the window in a tray. The brush is a good one, not the usual stiff 'craft' effort with the same bristles as a tooth-brush; always the biggest disappointment with this type of thing when I was a kid - even 'household name' model manufactures used to put shit brushes in their 'starter kits', jeeze!

Here are their Royal Highnesses; they are in a medium-soft PVC vinyl resin, about the same consistency as bendy-toys, but without the bend! What I consider 'standard' PVC! And they each have a name . . . auuwh . . . bless!

From the left and moving to the right we have; Princess Olivia of Aqualand (it's very wet), Princess Sophie of Varovia (Russkie = fake-news central), Princess Georgina of Ratania (it's a rodent's nest) and Princess Alice of Galantine (artist running out of ideas!) and I'm not making this up - somebody else got paid to do that! Where do they advertise these jobs? "Wanted, copy-writer - must be capable of mawkish nonsense" . . . I could do that!

As you can see there is also a cardboard backdrop, which I have to confess will feature here again from time to time, like the little flower-meadow thing which came in one of the Insect sets (I think?) about a year ago, and which has reappeared from time to time; so this will prove useful with other cartoony, fantasy or girly subjects I'm sure!

The booklet that accompanies them has each princess given a painting 'project', between which are relatively brief versions of old fairy tales involving princesses! This illustration reminded me of the old Ladybird Book on the Princess and the Pea, but I think it's all new artwork.

Six water-based PVC paints are included - mercifully full, unlike that magazine premium Tardis we looked at ages ago, along with the useful brush, no green - you have to mix that yourself - although, despite mixing instructions in each project for all the pinks, mauves and purples [deemed necessary] there is no instruction for green, but let's face it -  it IS about the first thing we ever learn . . . along with playing the triangle and spelling 'Granny'!

The Consumer Information Panel. If you're wondering why I've said so little about the figures, it's because that's coming later.