UFO is for UAP - Uni-King Toys / Peter Kiri - Mysteries of the Universe UFO

So, I'm not so fussed about the absolute order of these, but these are the 'better' of the three lines (marginally), so I'm leading with them, even though the Uni King sets (which I call the 'Triple Flap Families') were dated 1996, against the 1993 of Imperial's Mighty Max knock-off - Sammy Steel!

 

March 2021 - Sci-Fi & Fantasy

These three posts are a bit of a mix of Internet stuff and my stuff, as the bulk of mine went to storage before I'd got all the shots I wanted, although some of them had already gone, or been separated at some point, the best are the Hinstar (next post) as all three loose sets came together at the end!

 

So, variously generic or, as the larger sets, credited to a Uni-King, and sometimes the UK importer Peter Kiri, these are a lot of fun, and you get little 'families' of aliens (hence my shorthand name for them!) with a few accessories, in a 'flying saucer' or UFO which unfolds in three sections and has a micro-mini UFO as the roof-piece, which can be flown off! By fingers!

We saw my first family, incomplete, way back at the start of the blog, the dog-faces, in the blue saucer, and a black saucer came loose from Chris Smith I think, not that long ago, but they are both in storage now, one with a couple of bits missing, the other sans contents.

 

But I did get the figures from the black one, although I'm not sure if I shot them, and these (Greenies) may be an evilBay image? The 'Greys' I did have to hand, but the accessories were only partial! Basically, you get two adults and two kids!

 

The green set, with its micro-UFO sitting atop the central column. This one also has three not-so-greys, moulded into their stasis-chambers, and - like the other three - a revolving floor, which allows for a second layer of detailing underneath, visible in sections as you push the missing segment of floor/gap around the central column.

Spiny-twisty things, there seems to have been plans for a third cover/hatch (hole next to left-hand feature), but for reasons of budget, or technical difficulty (or forgetfulness?) it never happened? The saucers and accessory-pieces are a 'styrene, or brittle'ish polypropylene, while the figures are PVC or one of its substitutes.

I'm missing a tripod, which should be red, but is white on the packaging artwork, in fact all the packaging artworks show pre-production stuff, and there are various subtle differences in design and contents. The missing elements mean we can return to this set another day, when I've got everything together and filled any gaps!

 

Each set is themed around a couple of tropes of the UFOlogists, here it's 'Greys' and the Easter Island Moais, the huge monolithic sculptures carved by the Rapa Nui with NO help from phuqing Aliens! And the little Moai is also missing, but I may have one somewhere in the stash, but I fear mine is Lego, Kinder or something similar?

18/12/2023 - Late Addition:

My original 3 of 4 'cute' aliens, I'm missing the other 'child'.

U is for Uni-King! And other Unknown Unknowns....

Right back at the start of the blog I did a few 'U is for Unknown...' posts, one of which was on Space Figures/Robots (overdue for another one actually!),  some have since been ID'd and the other day another of the mysteries was solved by this Little Weirdos blog post as being cheapie-toy generics from Uni-King. I'm missing a figure and a space-ship...and two other sets!

Annoyingly I've ID'd a couple of the 'still unknowns', including the 12 small-scale figures in the bottom left corner of the first image, but lost the info. in the files somewhere, it was a play-set of some kind? Can anyone help with these figures as Wouter Wayland over at Benno's Forum is equally keen to get an ID on them? A full set seems to have all 12 figures in both colour schemes and they are a reasonable 1:72nd scale.

They seem to be Star Wars knock-offs, with a clear 'Darth' and several recognisable elements of Imperial and Rebel pilot's uniforms and a bit id storm-trooper thrown in for good measure!

[Now ID'd as Tombola (although Plastic Warrior 82 showed large-scale versions by Party Pig?)]

The three 30mm white/orange/yellow astronauts in the same image also were ID'd, err...but aren't! They were on evilBay about two years ago, a big set with a space-station; gantries, control towers, connecting tube-corridors, cranes and the like, again a generic? Argos or Target or something...maybe Mattel? Can anyone help with that? I know I've got it somewhere but that's no use if I can't find it! Note the visor sticker on one figure.

[Now ID's as MB (Milton Bradley) Star Bird figures]

From the same original image - these are now well documented, possibly manufactured by Jean [Höefler] or Manurba (Manfred Urban), but just as likely - an Italian or Austrian maker, they were issued by Jumbo in a Thunderbirds themed board game but not before they'd been issued in Linde coffee, apparently - a decade or so earlier. I believe they have also appeared in the German equivalent of Lucky Bags?

But basically they were issued all over the place! Based on Plasticraft originals, once you start searching for them you find them in every colour and type of plastic, all over the world, like a lot of those early 1950's mouldings.

Jumbo set now known to have been manufactured by DS Plastics also of Holland.

U is for Unknown Space

Well, we're back up to 'U' so I get to ask for help!! All these have a space theme but remain unidentified vis-a-vis origin, whether manufacturer or importer/distributor.

This first photograph shows - clockwise from top left - Three hard plastic astronauts [Now known - MB (Milton Bradley) Star Bird], which annoyingly, I have seen somewhere, in the last few years, but instead of jotting down the details, thought I could rely on a mental note, needless to say; I totally forgot what they came with!! The red guy is very similar to some Italy-produced children dressed as Cowboys & Indians I have, but he is bigger then the two spacemen in the bottom row? [Ervino Cus confirms Italy and a thread on Danefield/Alphadrome suggests permiums?]

The three silver spacefarers are in soft polythene and have the look of a Hong Kong product, but no HK marking? [Left and Right are from the Thunderbirds International Rescue board game and should have blue helmets, they were also sold in tray-sets and by Linde as coffee] The guy in the middle remains 'unknown' and from a different series/set Thanks to Ervino, he is identified as Italian maker Dolcificio Lombardo and sold in the USA by Astral Bubblegum, sometimes passed-off as Texas (another Italian maker) in the UK, he should be plugged into a star/shield base a' la Timpo] While we tried the Bike-gang member on the readers of One Inch Warrior the other year with no result. I'm sure it's from a board game, it's hard styrene, but too small for Games Workshop?

The guy in the corner is soft vinyl, and probably modern? Then the two previously mentioned, approximately 1:72 spacemen similar to but not CO-MA [Thanks to Ervino again for confirming they are Coma/Co.Ma./Co-Ma!] and their green, sub-scale saucer, which I know are Italian but any idea on a company name?

Finally a nice group of Galoob type figures in 20mm, again soft'ish vinyl, but no makers mark, just number codes prefixed with an A or a B? 2015 - There's a chap on Benno's Forum also keen to ID these, and while they are listed in the smallscale doorstep by Vic Rudic (pp 811), he's just taken them from here without credit! Indeed, he's taken all the pictures in this thread, cropped-out all the smaller ones (and the larger silver ones?) and passed them off as his work!- 2017 - Tombola Chocolate egg prizes!

Again clockwise from upper left, a 50mm vinyl robot with the look of a Japanese cartoon about him? [JCC in comments identifies him as a Bandai 'Power Rangers' figure] In the centre are two harder Nylon-like polyethylene robots from 'Lucky Bags' with a distinctly European look to them? The brown one is clearly based on Batman! Then two lick and stick robots in rubber, which - to be honest - are probably HK Cracker-toys or party favours and unlikely to be linked with a maker!

A nice articulated robot is next, similar to some Kinder production but too small, he is equally too big for the Galoob/Matchbox type 'Action Fleet' and similar animated figures. The three painted robots could be Galoob or similar?

Finally; two silver robot/android types with the influence of Fritz Lang's Metropolis oozing from them? Both in a stiff but soft plastic. [Yes; the bigger one - the male? - has had his head chewed! [Possibly Bandai/Popy from Japan - see comments]

These three were also tried on the 1IW readership with no luck, but the play-set wasn't included on that occasion, it's in the style of Mighty Max or Polly Pocket (both previously by Blue Bird Toys here in the UK, now and worldwide; Mattel), but in this case no markings of any kind?

The two little rock carvings are the same ones carved out of the South American deserts, that Eric vonimadickhead Daniken used to 'prove' his case in those risible books (Chariots of the Gods...et.al.) he made a small fortune with in the 1970's. The black thing is a micro-scale lander/atmosphere craft. And should be accompanied by a green speeder I have somewhere and a forth figure I haven't! 

22nd Nov. 2015 - Now identified as Uni-King with catalogue page here. 

27th Nov 2015 - Ervino Cus' input, much appreciated. More on some of these: here now