M is for May's Visit - Boxed and Carded

In addition to the stuff I bought on the day, Peter had also encountered some rack-toy and other stuff, which he put to one side for me, and with the next Rack Toy Month a while away, they can go here!

 

I think we've seen the Unique set before, but the stretchysaurs from Tobar are all new. Similar to others we've seen here, but a bit bigger. And with several comparison shots of these party-favour type monochrome beasts, in the smaller scale, now seen here on the Blog, I think the first image is the 'missing link'! 

 

KTL Topco Limited would appear to be a trading name for Kandy Toys, they share the same business park and postcode address/es, and this larger-scale set may give us a clue to one or two of the many mini-sets, as that bright pigmented spray, over a greyish-white synthetic PVC, is seen in mini-sets of Dinosaurs, sea-life and wild animals?

 

I think Peter really just wanted off'ski for this, and I said I'd try to offload it, but I didn't really know how, then I realised the gazebo/folly, and a couple of the other elements, might make useful photo-props in the future, so for now it's in the storage unit!

 

There used to be a chap who specialised in Bayko (it's not Bakelite, it's polystyrene!) around the shows, but I haven't seen him or his distinctive Bayko knitted-jumper for a while, probably not since . . . well,  lockdown, so I fear the worst - when you look at the Blogs which haven't uploaded/posted for five years, you realise Covid cut a bit of a swathe through old toy collectors, I'm afraid.

 

Many thanks to Peter for all these.

P is for Prehistoric Odds & Sods

That's enough dinosaurs for a while (there's more in the queue!), finishing off with a few which have come in recently worthy of a mention, and a quick follow-up on a recent post, so, in the order in which they were shot, which is pretty-much the order then came in . . .

 

These two came in with a mixed lot, possibly a Charity shop lot, several got subsumed into the whole without dedicated posts, while others only got the highlights shot - like these two? A couple of hatching dinosaurs, presumably from a larger diorama or vignette, painting is quite crude so maybe one of the larger generic window boxes you see in TKMaxx, B&M or Home Bargains?

 

I'd been looking for these, to compare with the other two sets when I Blogged them a while ago

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2024/12/p-is-for-prehistoric-party-packs.html

 

I think we have seen them, or a similar set before, and with the other two now buried in the storage unit, it's a comparison for another day, but there are four of these mini-monoblock party-favour sets to compare, in total I think, maybe five, and these are the pooest, being knackered multi-generational piracies of old US sculpts from the 1950/60's?

 

Shelfied in B&M the other day, I thought the painting was quite good on the six animal models, and with the seeable models not matching the artwork, worth shooting against future ID'ing of loose samples when they come in!

 

While I hope one day to do lots of ID pages, as I've mentioned before, firefighters, AWI/Marlborough, cats, whatever, there are so many dinosaurs, it will be difficult to get them all on one page, so I fear the 'Dinosaur' Tag, here, well always be a fall-back!

 

I got a third Depesche pencil-top to add to the two we saw the other day;

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2025/02/d-is-for-deinos-sauros.html

 

Only, once I'd got it home I wondered if we've actually seen it before, and that was why I didn't get it when I got the other two, so I may have two of them now, but that might encourage me to force one off the pencil and see if it will stand-up!

T is for Two - Hobbycraft Rack Toys

These are fun, one being a copy of previously seen stuff, the other a rather weird take on millinery! It's funny, you can go to one of these big-box stores regularly for several years and find nothing beyond a mould-your-own pirate fort to shelfie, or you can go three times in three months and walk away with something after every visit! I was in Hobbycraft the other day for a multi-compartment storage tray and left with three, and these two!

"Throw an egg in it; that'll make it Easter-bonnet'ty!" Yeah, seriously . . . but a nice set of mini dinosaurs married to a scenic space-taker and a couple of bits of greenery, Easter bonnet's are all about the greenery!

The two on the right are from forthcoming posts on kids comic giveaways, and while the Hobbycraft ones are similar they are 'new' copies rather than pantographed clones, and - it has to be said - of slightly poorer quality/finish.

The palm trees are fascinating - from a technical point of view - as they are a single moulding (that frond is growing out of the trunk), which must be shaped with heat, probably while still hot from the moulding process? The shrub is clearly a fish-tank thing with a weight-basket attached to bury in the gravel at the bottom of a tank!

And they both have this bi-colour single-shot moulding which pushes the paler colour to the extremities, which have looked at before, again coming our hobby via aquaria? 

While these are branded to Unique, who we've seen before as purveyors of fine novelty tat! They are smaller copies of the Henbrandt ones we saw here, the originals going to five poses, to which we added a sixth pose here.

I don't know if these knock-offs have copied all six sculpts as they are only sold in fours and all the bags had the same contents? That's it; a couple of rack-toys in Hobbycraft now.

I would add that House of Marbles are carrying the Henbrandt set in new colours, so we will see these again here at Small Scale World.

U is for Update - Parachute Toy Page

I suspect BT has failed completely (or blocked me, without informing me, for being a complaining git), so this and the previous won't get up 'till Monday, but it will - at least - be in time for RTM, with the other stuff which should have published over the weekend being filtered into the normal output!

As you can see I got on in-time, but the six posts which were supposed to publish Sat-Sun., have been held so that's rather it for RTM, now, but there's always more to come here!

All these are contributions from (alphabetically) Brain Berke, Chris Smith. Peter Evans and Theo van der Weerden, and while the rest have gone on the other page, the section for 'poopatroopers' hasn't been edited or uploaded yet, so it can go here!

These are from Imperial, via Brian Berke over 'The Pond' and while they (Imperial) were responsible for the original Poopa-Troopers, these are slightly different, however, they are not the clones we've seen in BJ, Jaru and Kandy Toys colours in the last few years, they are if anything closer to the Imperial originals.

Also they are only a small part of a larger set of summer garden/beach stuff, although that bat could be used to get some height on the sky divers!

These four on the other hand have published to update the relevant sections of the Parachute figures page. That's got novelty paratroopers up before the end of RTM, and we'll be on to other things as the Autumn gets a grip, looks like we're in for a hard'ish Winter!

U is for [not so] Unique Unicorns

A classic bit of rack-toy tat here, Unique party favours have starred here in the past and so too have the contents but under different circumstances, and we still only have three sculpts in a four-pose count!

As they come; currently in Hobbycraft (Farnborough) for next-to-no-money (a quid I think?), these eight party favors are basically the same figures we saw here in an overview and here in more detail.

Where they were labelled to Top That Publishing/Tide Mill Media and possibly copies of the Breyer 'Horse Crazy Surprise Horse Painting Kits' sculpts with horns added by the pirating body?

They are still 35mm to the shoulder and 50-odd to the crown, the only differences being that A) they are now factory painted in a 'bright' pastels scheme and B) there are eight not four, although we still have the anomaly of one duplicate (the same pose as last time) among the three sculpts, so four of one pose, four of the other two! Therefore the evidence would appear to dictate that the duplication was in the tool.

Rack Toy! Out there now!

**    **    **    **    **    **    **    **    **    **    **    **    ** 

R is for Regular Round-up!

Like yesterday's football/footballers; for many years we didn't really look at paratrooper toys here, but a couple of years ago I did  an overview of what I had here at the time, and since then with a lot of help from New York and keeping an eye-out, we've had quite a few re-visits.

I still haven't found the 'in storage' box, but I spotted a few buried the other day and it may be with them, so perhaps before Christmas I'll have united the two sizeable samples and we can have a better look or over-view of the genre - a favourite here, now.

How they come in! I bought these in Basingrad on the 9th, two from Wilkinson's/Wilco, the other (Phidal Peter Rabbit) from TKMaxx, the monster [snake!] skeleton was really for Halloween, but you've seen it now - it'll look great with skeleton armies though! Phidal are going to need a couple of days now, there's around ten sets, or part-sets in the queue, and anyway it's the paratroopers we're looking at now.

So, N is for Not That Unique Are They! We've looked at their 54mm solid paratroopers here and we've looked at the blow-mould poses as both a blow-mould and solid by other brands or under other brand marks, but under Unique - as I said - these sets of four are in Wilko's at the moment.

I have a set of 12 in the storage lot which I think also came from Wilkinson's but about eight or nine years ago (possibly the green-carded set), while an earlier set existed. The drop in contents reflects inflation, but a drop from 12 to 4 in one step has a whiff of greed too, especially if you were running the twelve for 15-20 years, prior to the sudden count-drop!

A drop to eight would have been a better start, and if you're dropping to four, why not issue one of each colour?

This is a make-weight for the post, the recent D&D Distribution catalogue shot showing the currently common figures we've seen here under several brands already, they are the ones with the closed canopy and single-shroud which I don't like very much! Also, someone needs to have a word with the copywriter!

We've also seen these several times but I couldn't remember if we'd seen a four-blister one, I know Brian B has sent shelfies of Jaru 3-blister packs and I've bought or shelfied two- or three-blister cards, but have we had a four? We have now! Kandytoys of Exeter.

From the archive comes Norton-Thomson's 1988 Lion Group 'Pocket Money Toys' catalogue, and a different take on the paratrooper toy altogether; they are fired into the sky by a long, rigid . . . err . . . 'member' placed . . . err . . . between their thighs, the . . . err . . . 'snake's head' engaging with a steel spring and catch mechanism . . . well endowed lads, but - ouch!

"Most inappropriate toy in INGERLAND EVER!"; he spittle-flecks down the 'phone to the Daily Wail's 'really important news' desk, for lesser bloggers to re-post! Also issued under TNT branding as The Sky Devils Paratroopers as code M7626A.

P is for Puff-powered Paper & Puffy-Polymer 'Planes

In my day (he says; making himself sound like an old git!) they were all paper or balsa-wood, now they are mostly expanded polystyrene foam, but you still find the odd paper one!

This post is a bit off the beaten track of Small Scale World, and was in part the result of unexpected consequences, following that weird sycamore-Superman I showed back in February, in that Brain B sent a couple of shelfies of equally wacky playthings to the Blog, and it encouraged me to build a post round them, mainly because one set were . . .

. . . Cars tie-ins and I hate Cars like I hate anything, so probably would not otherwise have used the images! From Unique who do appear here from time to time as purveyors of quality tat and novelty polymer loveliness, they are four to a pack and probably as much-fun as anything else in their price-bracket.

There is a Marvel Avengers Assemble set as well - also with four models, but they all appear to be the same; both sets seem to be made from die-cut foam-core sheets which may make them a tad heavy, still; a sharp push into the wind and they should do the business.

And the business is . . . ephemeral fun, which if not timeless, probably goes back to well before the Wright brothers - if Da Vinci was drawing them, chances are kids were experimenting with toy ones?

As Mr. Berke was sending me his shelfies I had been buying this from Clinton's as a birthday card for someone who's hard to buy cards for!

I went back for a second; the wings were a bit loose until I worked out how to shove them back into a tightening section, not bad and all-paper! Despite the militaristic marking, it's unarmed, clearly a two-seater and probably based on a trainer or powered-glider of some kind.

Ah, yes . . . this, believe it or not; is HTI's Thunderbolt. Back in the day - the balsa-wood day that is - they were either outline printed in black on wood, or they came with a reasonable two or three colour screen-print; this has been fully litho'ed, but poorly and onto un-sized, expanded-polystyrene, which gives a opalescent look.

It has fold-up ailerons and stabilisers in the wings and tail respectively which the old balsa ones didn't, but we sometimes put them in our folded-paper 'planes at school, it usually resulted in a nose-dive or a tail-stand . . . followed by a nose-dive!

By now I was on a roll vis-à-vis getting a post together, and discovered that not only do women get less wages and pay more for their pink stationary, but despite making-up slightly more that half the toy-buying population, they pay more for their glider-toys too! This was £1.50 against the 99p's and flat £'s of the 'boys toys'! Investing in journalistic excellence, or being taken for a mug? Doh!

More like the ones Brian sent to the Blog as shelfies this one from Grossman's HGL is properly three-colour printed on foam-core board, and despite it's odd look, fly's as well as any . . . oh yeah; there's been ruthless testing!

Only this weekend I saw Tobar gliders of Dinosaurs, the same fighters we're about to go back to, and something else which I've forgotten, something cartoony and/or thematic? And I remember birds from when I was a kid.

But here's a thing - when I was rushing around looking for a couple of these to Blog a few weeks ago, at 5.25pm in a small parochial town that goes dark at 5.29 on the dot - I went into the discount store and asked if they had any and they didn't, but on Saturday - they had three different boxes of them . . . clearly; it pays to ask!

Although now I feel guilty for the little toy shop, as they did have them last time and that's where I ended up getting the four in this post, but now they have competition a few doors down, and it may be my fault! They had HTI and Tobar mixed in the same dispensing box, and after getting the Thunderbolt, I went back for a spitfire and Tomahawk, and half-wish I hadn't, as we'll see.

But first a comparison of the two packagings reveals that there is a slight difference in line-up, both companies are offering 12 aeroplanes, but only 11 are duplicated between ranges with HTI offering a MkII Spitfire to Tobar's Hellcat, as these sets always had a Messerschmitt Me.109 when I wer't'lad, I can safely assume they are both purchasing from a longer list offered by the Asian manufacturer. Also there's a couple of oddities on the list - Focke Wulf trainer?

Tobar's artwork shows them as they could be, HTI's as they are, you will notice there are only a few different pressings, with HTI the different artwork used is 'best as can be'; once you've opened the packing the actuality . . .

. . . is far more disappointing, with very poor QC, very poor registering within the cut lines, very poor pigmentation, very poor accuracy (we have a Japanese Tomahawk!), mirror-image of fuselage-halve artwork, leading to inverted lettering and reversed codes, all very poor!

The reason all the shots of the Thunderbolt above show the same side, is because the other side looked more like melted bubble-gum than aircraft artwork! And these were almost as bad, all over - a pinky-purple mess.

At least HTI aren't going to disappoint to the level Tobar's are!

I will look out for vintage versions and maybe come back to these in a few years - there were advertising premiums and some used to have a central balsa spar to which a rubber-band motor and wire-mounted wheels could be added, but if you're of a certain age; you know that, we all got through a couple or more - every summer!

I think I may have a four-engined Lancaster Bomber from a beach-day in the 1990's somewhere in storage, which was a better print, but the same sheet-foam construction - for now though; that's 'paper' planes!

29-03-18 (Very auspicious day!) Re- Tomolio's comment, these are being imported into the Antipodes by Pink Poppy - anyone recognise the logo on the stock-box?

L is for Lizards Again!

So another post covering recently Blogged stuff, which has come around again in time for Rack Toy Month (yes - we'll get back to army men soon!), with more of the multiple connection thing we've seen in the last two posts (below).

In the previous post on lizards (back in June), we looked at an MTC set Brian sent picture of with six small lizards, well, the other day I picked-up the same six, with two others in a net by Unique at the same time as the similar insects. Then - last week Brian sent me a picture (top left) of the same in the Big Apple - which is why I suggested in yesterday's post that the MTC insects may turn-up over there in the Unique bag as well! Anyway, there's 3 poses in at least 8 colourways!

4 snakes and 4 snakes is eight snakes, but in a Rack Toy, not on a plane - phew! More MTC minis . . . put money on them turning-up in Unique packaging, or would they wiggle out of the bags! Also; take a 'sportsman's' on them turning up as glow-in-the-dark under Grossman?

Hunson novelties, but Rack Toys for Rack Toy Month! We had these when we were kids, there were lovely composition ones still around when I was a child as well, little lozenge-shaped lumps of 'olin' composition, formed either side of a canvas strip and richly painted, the head had a little red-leather tongue!

Also who remembers the howling snakes: long concertinaed tubes with a snakes head, and you whirled it round as fast as you could to get an eerie howling noise which was part air-raid siren, part Hawkwind instrumental and part alien battle-fleet attacking; it didn't sound anything like a snake!

Ooh! Are we doing reptiles again? Have I shown you this? Best Birthday present ever . . . I have? Well, they're here now, so they can stay! Isn't it brilliant?

I is for Insects Again!

So the multiplicity of sources for the same figures I mentioned in yesterday's monkey post, is highlighted again with today's post (most supplied by Brian Berke), which looks at insects again, had I known I'd be running Rack Toy Month I might have held over that first post, but it's all grist to the mill!

So these are the same insects as were (are being) issued over here by Unique, except in the 'States they are under the MTC branding. Although, tomorrow's post suggests that the Unique set should be findable in the New World too. A few days after the original post (couple of weeks ago), I found the same set of insects as glow-in-the-dark novelties, in the same net-bag as Unique, but branded to H.Grossman (HGL) - one of our oldest surviving importers (although recently sold; I seem to recall reporting here a while ago), which is two types of product from the one set of moulds in three formats from at least three brands on two continents!

These 'Souvenirs de Fiesta' (must put that in the foreign terms section!) from Amscan are larger and what I consider novelties rather than model animals (but then so were the The Works insects!), and it's nice to see that something (or a version of something...) which is 30, 40, 50 years old can still be bought by - mum's and dad's who enjoyed them then - for their kids to enjoy today.

I think it's 3x12 and the list looks like (from the top); dragon fly, bristle-tail, millipede, mantis, scorpion, ant, fly, earwig, grass-hopper, caterpillar, spider and cockroach?

These seem much cruder than the Unique/MTC beetles, more like the older Ackerman bugs we looked at the other day, same softer rubber in black, with basic paint-job in a contrasting colour. Don't show them to my mother, she'll be off up to Baker's hardware to by a packet of magnets and some glue . . .

. . . for her fridge door! Thanks to Brian for the pictures in the first three images.

C is for Chitinous Creepy-Crawly Carded Chinacritters

So - I am declaring August 'Rack Toy Month'. I'm not sure if the UN or HMG will add it to their lists of official days, weeks, months and cultural years, but certainly at Small Scale World, this August will be Rack Toy Month . . . and if Brian Berke keeps sending me images and examples at his current rate, it'll be Rack Toy Month for the whole of the second half of 2017!

As well as lots of images from Brian, I've collected a few myself recently and there are a few older ones in Picasa, all of which can be grouped, lumped or thrown-together violently in thematic posts, or as stand-alone posts.

We'll start with last week's little act of serendipidy or co-incidence; I had to go on an epic journey the other day involving 7 buses and several miles of walking, I won't bore you with the details . . . all frightfully parochial real-life shite involving a drive-belt for a garden chipper, but I had to pop into Farnborough for some vape-juice (over two years, no fag!) at the start of the day so popped round the corner to a party shop I check for this stuff occasionally and got more lizards, four key-rings, a bag of cats (coming soon) and a bag of insects!

The netted set top right, be they! One of the key rings was a snail, so the two purchases rather drove each-other. Two buses later found me in Frimley, where there used to be a shed-load of charity shops, some of them seem to have gone, but there were a few and with 20 minutes to kill for the connection, I flew round them and found the old tub of insects - bottom right.

As I'd seen, and rejected a set of large and not very good insects in The Works earlier, I thought "Well, 'it has to be' now!" and so, two buses later, shelled out the couple of quid for the set to the left in the above collage!

The contents of the three sets, you can see why I initially rejected the Works ones, they (upper shot) are big, rubbery, lacking detail and are not trying too hard to resemble anything known to entomologists - in all cases the legs/thorax rule is studiously avoided!

Below them to the left is the Ackerman charity-shop purchase, with 13 present I suspect a couple are missing? To be honest they're not much cop either but were only 50p! Finally the Unique branded bag's contents are a bit better, probably not that accurate either, but better sculpts and more subdued colours make them a reasonable set. They would respond well to a repaint.

Comparisons between the sets, you can see the sizes in the previous collage are pretty close to the actual size comparisons here, anyone who knows how Picasa collages work will know that's more by good luck than good judgement!

The un-branded key-ring which started the insect purchasing frenzy is probably a marine mollusc - with a shell like that, certainly something very foreign to the UK? I've removed the ring & chain for this shot, and looking at it next to the monkey and horse it came with, I suspect they were tub/toob items themselves once?

Supporting evi'dawnce! A few weeks ago I'd got the trick roach, also from The Works (59p, for a hysterical insect . . . bargain!) to add to the small number of novelty insects and invertebrates we saw back in December's novelty posts, now I'm well on my way to my first shed-full!

Several of these will be very useful as monsters in a secret dungeon trap! Although the best candidates for that are the scorpions who all need their tails bent up with hot-water treatment as they are all moulded flat. Indeed; the scorpions (count the legs!) can all be ridden by 25/30mm figures?

Again . . . from the I-buy-this-stuff-so-you-don't-have-to dept., a couple of day after I put this article to bed, I found these two, from H. Grossman (HGL) which I bought a while ago with next December in mind, bearing in mind last December's novelty 'season'!

The snake is vile, both sets come with a protective sheet to prevent them damaging the card backing and neither has the 'may stain clothes' warning of the 1970's capsule toy we looked at last Christmas. But, while the maggots are fun and quite realistic; the two larger black ones are more like leeches than maggots - the snake is a blob, which stained and deformed the first PE bag I put it in, which went soft and wrinkly - in hours?

I've now stored it in foil, rolled in one bag, in another bag, with a mental note to chuck-it if there are any more problems! Vile, I tells' ya; cold, slimy, probably radioactive, lump of sun-gelled, hell-spawn!