F is for Follow-up - Supreme and it's Customers

Well, we seem to be at the end of Rack Toy month, yet I've barely touched Rack Toy Month; hardly any of the stuff left over from last year (a couple of the knights posts?) got done, hardly any of the other stuff earmarked for this year's RTM, none of the Indian Canoe posts (which have been added to), a bunch of shelfies from Brian B, non of mine (well those daft wheeled dino's aside!), it seems not much really, yet we've seen over 30-posts so there must have been something!!

Anyway, I think, while I have other stuff to go, and some H is For's to clear before the next Sandown Park show (only a few weeks away?), I'll try to keep going with the HK/China cheapie stuff through September, just to get some of it out of Picasa.

In the meantime - two pieces which missed the Supreme posts; the above was in Playwrite's 2006 trade catalogue and shows one of the smaller sets, consider selling these (note the different contents of the boxed one)  at a petrol station or corner shop for £5.50 (if bought in at the blue price) or a mere fiver (if bought at the red price) and there's always a least 25% profit  in there, plus, those red and blue prices must have some profit for Playwrite built-in, so god knows what the 'Unit Price' is, but it must be less than peanuts, pound-for pound, or kilo-for-kilo!

This got missed in the final post of that previous sequence (The Supreme tag will get all of them up), it's a Toysmith set of the cheap polyethylene versions of the small Esci copies as also carried by Halsall / HTI and Kandytoys.

R is for Return - to 'Probably' Redbox?

I mentioned back in 2017 that I'd seen two versions of these some better-fed than others! And that is one reason they remain 'probably' Redbox, the other being that the only commitment to an absolute "Redbox" come from someone who A) I wouldn't trust to give me a weather-report if he'd just stuck his arm out of the window and B) he didn't make clear (or know) which lot he was dealing with?

These are the smaller ones, and have three different base-marks, rowed from the top;

• ·         CHINA
• ·         CHINA 1003
• ·         MADE IN CHINA

As you can see from the figure middle left, the figures are available in both colours, but all poses seem to be mark-specific, so the suggestion - for whatever reason - is that the marks are all on the same tool.

Apologies for the poor photography, but yellow-on-green is another of those colour-combinations I forget to remember don't work! The different marks caused me to look again at the larger ones (which we've seen before here once or twice) and found that they too have different markings!

These, in yellow or blue (so far!) are marked with a plain CHINA, but others are more interesting . . .

. . . these have the same CHINA mark, but an additional letter underneath which in this case and from the left read; I, C, K, D, E & H. There is an additional polymer colour too; silver, and duplicates tie the three colours to all poses with the letter-codes, but no un-coded silvers have turned up (so far!). With 12 (or 14?) poses we could be looking at a sequence going up to L or N?

Yes, Yellow's not much better on black! The chap on the far left came-in recently in a mixed lot and seems to be one of the figures from the mould-your-own plaster fort kit/set I shelfied years ago and thought I'd put on the blog, but I can't find it (it did go to Plastic Warrior) so I've just (16.23) added it below!

As to the others, it's all still speculation, but I think the smaller ones are true fakes, trying to be the 'believed to be Redbox', while those larger ones had at least two contracts, one with the letter-codes, one without. Toy Major often have - usually longer - codes on the stuff they market to the Industry, so they might be in the frame, while Redbox might have used the plain CHINA ones, but the only piratey thing I've seen from them is the ship I shelfied in TKMaxx and that had action figures!

Those 4M pirates, the pose I've found may be a copy (reversed pose, detail loss), or the box art may have a reversed image of a master/test-shot? There are eight poses in the image, and if they were two tools, may only come in one colour each . . . do you have any and what color are yours?

We'll know for next year, I've just bought a mint-one, half-price on feebleBay! And I'll work on . . . or work-on working on, on . . . the 'believed' to be Redbox, to finalise the codes of the larger, and the number of poses, colours and origins of all, hopefully for next year, too.

R is for Return to Rack Toy Rascals - Round Up

Having seen several of the following in the last year or two, sometimes both years, I didn't think we'd be returning to them again, but life happens while you're thinking things, and here they all are for a reprise/round-up/return!

Additions to the 'probably Red Box' lot, both poses and colours has raised the pose count to nine which is unusual enough to keep me looking for a tenth, even though I've never seen one! And three colours, although I think I've also seen them in green?

Similar additions (in the same purchase) to the Dollar General sample brought them to only five posts, but added both light and or dark red and yellow to what I already had, the dark yellow's however, have washed out under the flash.

Brian had also, earlier, sent me his Dollar General acquisition, so by way of a close-up of both sides - here he is!

Toysmith's pirates are new to the Blog's collection and came as enemy for the unpainted Tomb Warrior skeletons in 'Battling Pirates' sets (from Toy Major) with six sculpts found, all in a black-as-your-pirate-heart charcoal plastic, these came from a charity-shop purchase I think, but see final paragraph.

I think Chris Smith sent these only the other day, but also see final paragraph; and they are smaller pirated versions of the Toysmith set in a softer green polymer.

So, excluding Hing Fat who got a good going last year and from the top; Dollar General, 'believed to be Red Box', unknown and the Toy Major-Toysmith newbie's with their two copies at the bottom. The unknowns are very 'unknown' at the moment - Jaru , D&D Dist., and Henbrandt carry Hing Fat and Imperial carried copies of Hing Fat (in yellow only) a few years ago, but I have no clue to these.

More imagery for the Toysmith set; base marking is similar to some of their PVC dinosaurs, and lacks the TM mark, while the copies are a lot smaller and - as mentioned - softer plastic, probably not a full-on PVC but one of these new hybrid compounds.

Toysmith as a distributor are running Toy Major push-through; in the Toy Major lists the set is currently titled W5545 - Action World Pirate Collection in a window box as opposed to the earlier header-carded bag.

Here I've taken the unknown and Dollar General's away and added the pod-footed, PVC rubber, 'probably capsule-toys' which came from Peter Evans and other sources in several tranches over some time. They are all copies of- or based-on figures from the Toysmith and 'believed to be' Red Box sets.

Last paragraph - I can't always and/or forever keep track of everything that comes in to the Blog, and there's stuff in this post which may not be correctly credited (like the Toysmith stuff for starters), suffice to say Peter Evans, Chris Smith and Trevor Rudkin have all contributed some of the above at some point, so thanks to them for everything they do!

S is for Submarine - on a Card

I purchased this at the same time as the Tank in a Tin although it was a more reasonable pocket-money price of three-quid-odd I think? Also; it's the 3rd or 4th 4M thing to appear in the Blog now and I think I muttered 'up and coming' last time!

I love the card-art, an ocean filled with submarines like a school of dolphins, but then I guess a German wolf-pack would have looked something like that - if visibility in the North Sea was anything like an artist's imagination!

Because it's not that long since the last 'Subs' round-up I've no other images to fill the post with, so it's just a case of here it is; another bath toy, submarine. The slot for the coning-tower is slightly tapered so you can't put it back in the wrong way - helps the watch-officer navigate if he knows which way his 'fish' is pointing!

Shades of the old Kellogg's sub in the deck-slots and shades of another, more silvery modern one, in polystyrene (this one is propylene I think, with a nylon plug) which we've seen here before at Small Scale World, another novelty baking-soda submarine, or baking powder, it's all the same stuff!

Shipper's are Great Gizmos in the UK, Toysmith in the US and Playwell in Canada.

N is for Ninja and New Game

Brian B (Terranova) sent me a bunch of images the other day and I thought; "Ooh, I know what they are, I'll dig mine out and put them together in a post", however, when I dug mine out . . . they were different! Hey Ho! So we will see Terra's later today, after first looking at what would appear to be the donor-sculpts!

These are they. This commercial image is from an old Amazon sales site which I tried to take advantage of, only to find they didn't ship outside the 'States; which makes you wonder A) what's the point of an 'Internet' if it's not actually integrated? And B) what's the point of all these clever algorithms if they can't tell when not to show an ad' or search-result in a zone where it's invalid?

Anyway; as I remember it - it was a year or three ago now - they were basically selling a gum-ball restock bag of them (about 25/30 or maybe 50/60 I can't recall?) or shop-stock box (the packaging wasn't shown) as 'party favours', bulk, for less than the price of a coffee at Starbucks! Lesson - if it's too good to be true - it usually is!

They are more commonly found associated with importer's A&A Global International who import rack toys and supply vendors with gum-ball machine refills.

My 'current sample' (as at January 2016) is not the largest, I'm missing the guy with the short sword and have a limited colour-set - I hope I have a few more in storage (I think, or I should have - they may be too modern?) with some of the other colours &etc.

There are six poses in total and they come in a wide range of colours, in what seems to have been at least two major production tranches, the above two images are the most recent issue and may still be current in a party or joke shop near you . . . or your local gum-ball capsule machine!

Quick comparison shot - Redbox on the left and an unknown probably also a capsule/gum-ball 'thingy' in the middle (similar to but not Panosh; possibly carried - undecorated - by Toy Smith?), with one of the A&A Global's on the right.

These - heavily cropped images from feebleBay - are from gum-ball machine insert/window cards and are all marked A&A Global. In the middle you can see the earlier tranche was in more 'girly' or pastel colour-ways. However - recently, they have been copied in a size better suited to large scale collectors, and it is those Brian sent to the Blog and which I will post this afternoon, with other Ninja-related stuff.

....∙∙●=============●●◙●●=============●∙∙....

I have a new time-wasting game! Two of the above images were loaded on the blog two years ago (in the big January 'up-at-the-library' posting I mentioned at the time) and I never got round to editing the text, needing to find them on the dongles to sort this post out I searched for them and it turns out the camera recycles the four figures codes; well, it would have to with a four-digit limit, wouldn't it! But it's not something I'd ever needed to give any thought to! And it appears I have taken (or 'kept' - around 2/3rds of every photo-shoot get deleted) no less than four 7012's!

And - random as they are - they manage to cover almost everything plastic;

Large and small scale; ethylene, polystyrene and PVC; civilian and military; figures and vehicles; historical, modern, and sports; big toys, rack toys, capsule toys and cake decorations; friction-motorised; painted, unpainted and transfers; branded and unbranded, there's even a hint of accessory/scenery with the goal posts . . . but weirdly - they are all Hong Kong/China!

A Number picked at random - New Game!

L is for Looks Like Wing Lung . . . But Isn't!

As we saw yesterday, Matchbox figures became ripe for piracy as soon as they had been released, taking the pressure off old Britains and Lone Star sculpts and joining Airfix as the origin of choice for copyists in Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore and increasingly by the 1980's - Mainland China.

With the bulk of my Matchbox copies in storage the figures we are looking at today are all contemporary or very recent, we did have a brief look at older, larger US clones here and the small scale Airfx/Matchbox mix from the 1990's here  while the rest of the figures below are labelled for known sources, where known.

The ones labeled 'USA' came from Brian Berke as a loose sample, but seem to be the same figures as the Funtastic for Poundland ones this side of the pond. The lower insets show how Ocean Desert Sales tampo-marked the base of one of their figures, and a swirly-marbled one.

The grey one is interesting, but his origins remain unknown to me, I'd guess either a small quantity issued as accessories with die-cast toys, or a modern'ish 20¢ price-range capsule/gum-ball prize. The small scale Wing Lung's we looked at yesterday are a tad smaller then the Red Box PVC-rubber chap.

On the left we see the Ocean Desert Sales figures compared to a better sample (both from Brian) in a dense PVC. The sandy coloured ones have a wider pose range and are pretty good copies, the Ocean sculpts being manufactured in a tinny-ethylene and skinnier. Note the guy being shot; the sandy one has a descent Tommy-gun sculpt to let go of; the Ocean guy is dropping a flipper!

To the right are the (known) poses/colours of the smaller figures, except Red Box's Motormax, who I know carried five poses (issued paired in tens) but they are in storage. They also come in various paint styles and I think another 'brand' source is ID'd in the archive.

The Ocean Desert Sales in their bag - Federal German 8th Army! And the full set of Wilkinson's ['Wilco'] figures which I think we've looked at before? We've also looked at the Funtasic and 99p/Poundland stuff quite recently so check the tag list if you missed them first time round.

Brian's sample of loose figures from NY, NY, and two compared to the Chinatroop cheapies which came from Peter Evans and are a slightly smaller copy/sculpt.

The sample from Peter Evans, I'm not 100% sure the two trucks were in the same set, but I seem to have photographed them in sequence and then included them in the collage without paying attention!
The little boats would paint-up well for war gaming, but the drivers/pilots (? Captains!) are a bit wooden. The map is fascinating, trying to tie-in to the Afghanistan 'adventure'.

There are a few non-Matchbox poses in this sample including an ex-Galoob Space Marine and some ex-Airfix chaps. The helicopter too is not that shabby, and a paint-job would bring it to life.

Finally, this came from Toysmith-via-Brian the other day and shows some quite good versions of Matchbox US Infantry clones, the window-box is very similar to the box the Funtastic smallies came-in over here. The figures are clearly marked MADE IN CHINA in the bases, and I find the need for a storage bag a bit ironic . . . "rip that box to bits and get it to landfill ASP kid, stuff the environment!"

R is for Reminder…

Nuff said...week and  a bit to go!

 

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Also; Brian Berke sent me a couple of pictures to show how the Super Heros we looked at the other day (which Brian sent me...thanks again!) can be painted-up to resemble various familiar Superheroes, clearly my imagination needs work! [And I've sorted the Operation Dynamo pictures, so in a day or two...]

News, Views etc...Posting Elsewhere! (rant alert)

I know my posting rate has dropped-off this year, but with real life stuff and the fact that I'm running out of stuff in the attic to blog, while everything else is still in storage have both affected what I can post, but there will be a steady'ish trickle of new'ish stuff...

This week I was also posting on another site - the STS Animal Collectors Forum;

Airfix

 JK of Hong Kong

 Tudor Rose

If you collect things other than military figures I would recommend it, they are a friendly bunch without the out-and-out competitiveness or bitchiness you get on some forums. And they have an animal-wiki attached;

Toy Animal Info.



I've also been posting original content elsewhere without my knowledge or permission....



This little shit;

Jimdo

...has copied all the documentation and most of the other images from my two EKO articles, presumably this means he doesn't mind me taking his stuff and putting it up here in English? As he seem to have stolen a lot of stuff from other people/books, I shall refrain!



While this plagiarist thief;

 Ghislain Oubreyrie

...has taken the diver images from the Kellogg's post and carefully cut round them! He's also cut round the Toysmith divers regularly found on eBay and is passing them off as Kellogg's originals, but the Toysmith ones have aluminium alloy plugs while the originals were tin, which tended to rust. Again, the little-dick has lots of useful stuff I could take reciprocally and post here in the universal language - if I chose to?



All you thieving pirates (Henk, Rudik, Ward as well) need to understand one thing...if/when I can afford it I will engage legal representation in your own countries and sue you (or your web-service provider/publisher/printer) for the price of a small house!

I publish original content, OR I credit fully with permission/link-backs, OR I flag up dodgy origin with a caveat, I also understand the law of copyright both off and on the internet. You don't; you're all inadequate, poxy little neuro-typical, farty-arsed fuckwits relying on others to do your 'work' for you.


So....lots of 'Smallscaleworld' on the web, just not all of it published here in the last few days, and not all of it original!