P is for Peter's Plunder - Highlights 1

As I mentioned the other day, I don't tend to post-credit when geldt has crossed palms, but first, I know who gave me the contents of the bag, and second, I know they were cheapies, so we'll look at the highlights!

 

A couple of robo-dino-bots, similar to the pair of gift shop dragons carried by several branding's a few years (couple of decades?) ago, but still around, with the same black undercoat, heavy silver over-brushing and red eyes!

There's a post on these coming soon'ish I think, touristy horses, I spent years waiting for riders to appear, but it seems there weren't any, despite the Western/American saddlery?

 

Three American natives from Jean, the prone one is one of the slightly harder to find poses, but they are as common as Airfix readymades, on the continent, so it's all a bit relative!

 

Very strange manga/anime things with slightly animalistic faces, pre-pubescent teen bodies, angels wings, and a look of mischief about them! Possibly Wild Vibes Zombaes Forever dolls (some Netflix thing), but not the 8cm articulated action figures Google reveals, rather 54/60mm PVC solids - an earlier/capsule-toy line?

 

A bit infant'y, and probably going-on to charity, but they are fun if you like all this 'deforms' stuff, and marked-up to K&M/Wild Republic, so - box ticked! And the horses are less cartoony and could prove useful for spare mounts?

 

Kinder's Disney Fairies, I tried to get them to perform for the camera, but the petals kept falling out, or the fairies fell over, so, well, you get the idea, a similar set of 'Flower Fairies' has been issued recently as well!
 

Space! The lenticular goldfish-bowl-face is a new [to the collection] colour, the orange guy is Safari, I think the green one might be Ben Ten (and was another one who didn't want to stand up!), while the silver guy is an MPC copy, and the other two are mini-action figures from Hasbro, one a Star Wars 'Clone War' figure, the other possibly a GI Joe or something?

 

Loving the quirkiness of these, semi-flat, polyethylene, 'monochromatic' dinosaurs, what's not to like? The bases have channels in them which suggest they may attach to something else, but similar channels have been seen in other figures over the years (game playing pieces, IHC firefighters), so there may be a technical reason behind it.

 

More Kinder, and another fail to get a better display shot, but they are from several Barbie series I think, and as spares/to-be-sorted are a useful addition to my smaller sample. Oddly, several of them have pink knickers! But it's probably not that odd to a child and I'm just channelling the inherited residues of Edwardian uptightedness in the matter?

 

More Kinder (or Phidal in the case of the little blonde) capsule-type stuff.

More space! Seven of the LB (for Lik Be, of course!) astronauts, in their soft polyethylene iteration, probably the best surviving of the small scale versions, and posed with the Combex pencil sharpener. I've since learned there is a carpet-wheel version of the novelty, marked only 'B - 5 2 0'.

F is for Follow-up - Hing Fat Egyptian Relics

I said - when I showed the Hing Fat bits Peter Evans sent to the blog - that I'd do a comparison with the similar sets from Safari and K&M/Wild Republic at some point in the future, well, by chance I had to wizz the relevant 'Ancients' box back to the house for a couple of hours on Tuesday, so this is that - brief - comparison!

The main elements, Hing Fat's on the left, both Safari sets in the middle and the K&M stuff off to the right with a Pharaoh's head variation I'd forgotten, All three sets are clearly aimed at both museum/heritage gift shops and middle-school project work more than actual playthings, but they are fun - and all the Mummies are figurals!

The semi realistic Safari Bastet statue sculpt, flanked by two slightly dog-like offerings from Hing Fat, the Hing Fat all come in a gold finish and a salmon-pink which is probably trying to be/represent a bare stone-effect?

Typically, the Atlantic 'styrene one is well-lost in the storage unit, so we'll have to do this line-up again, but we have three resin's, one with a rams head, all showing/sculpted as- a presumed 'how they were',  then the Safari and K&M both showing it as how it is now, with broken nose and severely damaged/eroded lower region and finally a rather stylised one from Hing Fat with a chubby sit-up-and-beg countenance, again more fanciful of what was rather than what it.

While the Safari/K&M stuff is PVC, Hing Fat's are a dense polyethylene or polypropylene, and many thanks to Peter for the Hing Fat sample.

R is for return to Ra, Ramses, Wrapped Wraiths and the Republic of K&M

And this time Mummy is included!

When I posted these the other day I had been labouring under the impression I had been sent 'both' rival sets (by Peter Evans - many thanks) for what would have been a comprehensive showing, but as I was editing them up, I realised there was a third set, which I had missed and while I mentioned it in the blurb then, I thought I'd better get one to compare.

Midway between Safari's Toob and the header-carded bag of the current Wild Republic set we looked at a couple of months ago, this sliding blister with backing card contains ten items which are also halfway between the content lists of the aforementioned sets, with the obvious difference that this set contains two full-sized (to the sets figures) mummies, one a Pharaoh the other more ambiguous, and capable of being a child in larger scales.

All bar the Tut' death mask are clearly marked with the parents K&M like the astronauts, and quality of paint and sculpting is better than the current set and equal-to or even slightly superior to the Safari set. Note that the Isis / Maat figure's wings were glued-on upside down in the factory/finishing location.

Comparisons with their own replacements (lower left) and Safari's effort (upper right) reveal that the pyramids and sphinx might have influenced Safari (rather than the other way round as I might have assumed), certainly the K&M ones are slightly larger and better sculpted.

The internal comparison is more interesting for - as well as being unmarked - the newer set has a very slight loss of detail on things like the detailing of the surface of the sarcophagus, or the muzzles of the two standing gods, but parallels are there under 'the glass', so it would seem K&M pantographed their own set to make duplicates of the five items carried-over to the newer iteration?

Painting has also and obviously been simplified on the newer set. The wings being loose on the previously purchased newer set and upside-down on the newly-arrived older set, meant I could have them all off and studied before gluing them firmly back, correctly in place with plumbers PVC pipe-weald!

The older set has studs on the wings location into dimples in the back of the godesses arms, while a reversal has the newer girls wings drilled through to take studs from the backs of her arms.

As the older one has better paint and a dais to kneel on, she will - henceforth - be Isis, while the red-winged junior (?) Maat (or Ma'at) can supplicate on the floor before her!

H is for How They Come In - Peter - June

Another day another gratefully-received donation to the Blog; just as Lockdown was starting to really grate with most, and the same morning as the latest issue of Plastic Warrior arrived, I received a lovely surprise from Peter Evans;

In the shape of mostly rack toy type stuff, or things suited to individual posts we have - now - seen most of the above sets and some of the lose bits like the pyramids - everyone should see the pyramids!

Other items of interest were the erasers (previous post today); a rather nice (possibly old'ish) crocodile; two mid-scale farm workers; the three large Egyptians, which due to one of them being a standing-about mummy with get a reprise later; an interesting copy of a Britains Deetail Japanese soldier who's not from the Kwong Wah series of chrome-sprayed ones and a fantastic Scooby [♪-doobie-♫] Doo (RIP Joe Ruby) dressed in a Sherlock Holmes costume!

Cracker toys, Boley cowboys, a wooden farmer's wife, snakes, a daft squirrel and a rather nice rabbit in a daft colour all add to the joy of sorting, and I suspect the twin palm trees are also from the large tub version of Wild Republic's set from whence came the pyramids?

While technically an action figure with various simple (single plane) points of articulation, I was rather taken by this, the construction of the horse is reminiscent of the larger Indians branded to Maxxi which wear various monikers, so he may be findable about the place under various brand-marks.

But he is big, ELC, Papo or Schleich big at about 70/80-mil? Still give him a better weapon, de-seam the joints and add some painting; he could look really sharp as a stand-alone display-figure and the caparison is begging for a complicated design!

S'not yours; s'mine!

E is for Egyptians (Mummies not included!)

But most of the other tropes are covered by these two sets, and there is a mummified cat! These were sent to the Blog by Peter Evans of Plastic Warrior back at the start of Lockdown, so many thanks to him, and let's have a quick look at these modern 'rack toys' to try and get some momentum behind a slow start to August here at Small Scale World!

Safari 'Toob' on the left and the K&M 'Wild Republic' header-card/bagged set on the right, the latter is the smaller offering, and may be the less expensive as a result, while the Safari's contents' are more expansive, the figures are almost the same.

I tell a lie actually; Peter sent the bagged K&M set along with the two pyramids from a larger Wild Republic tub/bucket play-set (which we looked at here) which also has palm trees and the like, while I quickly sent off for the Safari set from that there Amazon dot com, to do a comparison. And interestingly, the Egyptian set was cheaper than some of the other sets they do.

These are the Safari sculpts less the two in the next pic' and you can see they are aimed at museum gift shops and sort of 'middle school' learners (as opposed to early learning if you know what I mean); gods, grave-goods and other common tropes, which can be dissected in a  school project!

Gold plastic and muted colours would benefit from a heavy weathering with sand washes and dry-brushing, to make them more realistic as war-game scenery?

The small sphinx is lovely; here scaled with Atlantic 1:72-scle figures, but the 'Great' pyramids of Giza trio are somewhat of a disappointment! They have both been given a sand dry-brush in the factory and take the toob's content-count to 12 items.

The Wild Republic set is one of several they have in their itenery at the momenet, a large bucket and a set of ten items closer to Safari's being the notable others. This set has 8 pieces making seven items (Maat's wings are glued-on, but came loose with my sample), and the subjects are similar to the Safari set, with several 'duplicate' sculpts.

Also similar is the shade of polymer used. but over-paint colours are brighter and limited to one per figure, and not all sculpts.

All together; the similarities between some of the gods mean that a modeller/scratch builder or converter/painter could easily produce eight different gods from the line up and together they make a nice addition to the collection.

Safari - Toyway - K&M comparison, not much in it, and the Toyway gets an inch on the others only by dint of having a deeper base! The Wild Republic set are slightly simpler or 2D sculpts and Toyway went with a more traditional, multi-colour paint job, but all three sets post-date the 'golden age' of toy soldiers, so it's fitting that they match each-other as well as they do

The seven standing deity poses from behind/the other side. I guess the K&M's are slightly smaller overall.

Rack-toys, out there now, with the additional toob set from Wild Republic to be found - which does include a proper 'mummy'.

K&M is for Wild Republic

When I covered the space figures here I called them K&M (Wild Republic), but these days most of the output is branded to Wild Republic, the space figures however still carry the K&M marking on the base.

This US firm was founded as K&M (after the owners children) by G.B. Pillai in 1979 and for many years was best known for soft toys of a more realistic (if very fluffy) nature than your average pink rabbit or blue squirrel!

Vinyl animals followed, aimed at museum and safari-park gift-shops and then, after an opportunity to go into retailing itself (presented at/with the Vienna Zoo) was taken-up, the company increased its range of lines to equip that kind of emporium. The result was that sets of 'heritage' figures (and astronauts) joined the catalogue, and there's nothing more heritage than knights!

The parent is now K&M International with offices in at least 8 countries, including - interestingly given current geopolitics - China AND India. In the US it's a 'd-b-a' (doing business as) what in the UK would be T/A (trading as); Wild Republic.

There are two sets, a better set with figures around the 70mm (16656 Medieval Nature Tube) made for them in or by a Hui Zhou of/from China and a smaller set (22862 Mini Knight Polybag) from the Victory & Valour (UK spelling) line, credited to Shantou, which consists of duplicates of four of the larger poses, reduced to a 60mm range.

Peter Evans kindly sent these to the Blog a while ago, and explained that the smaller header-bag had had two-each of the four poses, one-each of whom were detached to another detail before the parcel left for SSW's command centre!

The larger set, I think a slightly darker-blue chain-mace chap has been in one of the Charity shop purchases, while Chris sent the kneeling archer in his last parcel for the Blog, again there are shade-variations with a lighter bow and darker mail.

The falconer is rather nice and a bit different, I can only think of the Starlux pageboy chap, off the top of my head (and Exin's 30mm mounted, poncy-looking Prince type), but I seem to recall someone did a whole line-up of them in Plastic Warrior magazine a while back?

I've said before I'm no expert on armour, but I think it's fair to say you get three early types and one 'high Tudor' tournament type, who looks (in the 70-mil set) as if he should glow in the dark, but it's just a pearlescent polymer.

As you can also see the scale is not constant within the two sets, the yellow guy matches the smaller ones better than his own mob, while 'her majesty' is heading toward 80mm, without the crown! I think the black chap has also turned-up before, but whether from Peter, Chris or charity I don't know; by the time I get them all together they'll need a whole tub to themselves!

Backs of the other five bigger ones, and a group showing how the kneeling archer can also be used with the smaller set, it's not a brilliant photograph, but I was concentrating on getting them all still standing-up!

Cheers Peter, a brief overview, but we'll return to them in future comparisons I'm sure.

P is for Pyramids

It's aliens in'it? No! It’s the simplest way to build large structures with low technology . . . basically it’s a pile of solidified builder's sand! And; the shape (viewed though half-closed eyes) is the only thing which links the Pyramids of Egypt with the stepped-temples of Mesoamerica, or orgiastic piles of Madhya Pradesh in pre-Mogul India!

I mentioned another parcel from Peter Evans the other day, and I'm not planning it an 'H is for...' as it will mostly get an outing in rack-toy month (RTM - August), although I have taken a birds-eye shot for later, but these two were loose in the parcel, I have no idea where they came from but it must be a play-set toy or activity pack of some kind?

Both a rather bright yellow polyethylene and entirely hollow, posed here with an Atlantic Pharaonic chariot in 1:72nd as the best size guide. Actually Pharaoh has got in the way - they are separate sculpts, not joined at the corners! 16-06-20 - They are from the larger 'Egypt' bucket by K&M under the Wild Republic brand (code 22854).

While I had camera and Egyptians at the same location . . . this one is a polished piece of what I suspect is Portland sandstone, but filled with vegetative detritus rather than the more recognisable fossils you find on Westminster Bridge or the side of the Economist Building; an off-cut in other words, which lent itself to being shaped-up and polished as a pyramidal keepsake!

In comparison with the card one we looked at a while ago, some kids' activity-magazine I picked-up in a charity shop a year or so ago. There is a fourth I could show, but anyone who's seen the Marx Miniature Masterpiece pyramid will know it's too tall, too blunt, too 'square' and too err . . . purple (!) to be included this time, we'll check it out in a MMM-accessory round-up some time!

The figure shots here show the commoner colours of these; from orangey- through tanned- to pale-flesh, but it's worth noting that unless you're a box-completeist, you're always better trying to get your hands on the larger chariot or 'Egyptian Cavalry' sets (1503, 1603 or 2503) as you don't always get all the poses in the smaller box (1803).

And many thanks to Peter for the plastic ones! 

O is for Ocean Board-games Scene

Bit of a marine theme to today's posts, starting with these two, both a quid (each) a couple of weeks apart, all contents bar figures now gone to recycling, and both instruction sheets squirreled-away!

Pinky-purple . . . IT'S NOT FOR BOYS! It screams in an age where you're not supposed to say stuff like that, but who are they kidding! Figures clearly shown on the front it was a shoe-in, but had it had all artwork (and some games do) I probably would have left it!

Babe from the waist up, otherwise she's a bit fishy! But with the belt/collar she's also looking like one of these people who go swimming with zip-up 'sleeping-bag' mertails! You can pay, you know; you can pay to learn how to swim like a mermaid, the world's going mad!

I quite like these and we will return to them, as there are a few kicking around, Accoutrements/Archie McFee, eraser or two, the odd LRG, a couple of other fantasy ones somewhere and a couple in storage along with the old transparent styrene cocktail-glass one, there is a decent comparison post in there somewhere!

Speaking of Accoutrements/Archie Mcfee and cocktail glasses reminds me - we will be returning to both soon here at Small Scale World, courtesy of Terranova.

K&M / Wild Republic (depending on your territory) made this and I almost regret buying it, but one should never have regrets, they eat away at you! K&M are more commonly importers/commissioners of toy animals in the sub-Schleich/Papo mould, so shaking the box and hearing what sounded like a bunch of animals I handed over my quid; despite the artwork!

The artwork was accurate! No matter I have a soft-spot for card and paper flats, even silly modern ones with crappy plastic stands! At a quid; it's a box ticker, it helps make the post and . . . how the hell are you supposed to follow your pieces when they are only a slightly different blue-boarder from the 'enemy'!

The otter looks more like a beaver which is an inland/fresh-water animal! And why is the queen (hardest biatch on the board) a dolphin, while the plodding, one-square-at-a-time, vulnerable King depicted as a shark? They should have been the other way round!

Pawns! All those penguins are only going to confuse in the middle of the board, but it's a good way of teaching chess to very young peeps I suppose. Box ticked!