D is for Doric

A made-up brand if ever there was one! Although they have a postcode and everything, I bet they share it with several other domestic household product and catering equipment brands!

We are going to be looking at the products of this 'company' a couple more times in the next few days, but these came-in about a month ago and are not covered by the forthcoming posts.

Showing signs of having been taken out several years on the trot, it's often hard to date this seasonal cake-decorating stuff, the graphics shrill 1980's, but the condition suggests later?

Contents of both sets; A mix of styrene, ethylene and poured, polyester resin polymers obviously bought-in from other makers, some is shared with more recent Culpitt stuff, while (as we shall see) Doric also carry the same tuff as Fiddes Payne.

S is for Seasonal 'Shelfies'

A few things I captured on my way round Woking while Christmas-shopping and visiting PW's estimable editor the other day . . .

Four for £10 from the Evil Empire, exclusive at the Toysaurus or you can get similar for a quid at Poundland, or less at Wilkinson's/Wilco; as we saw the other day [link] . . . and it's your money!

In Debenhams for xmas, shipped by Keycraft, another of the new names this year I've seen several other - non-toy - novelty items from, in my travels. Decent re-sculpts of the much-pirated Matchbox figures - why didn't they just do new figures?!!

How cool is this? Too cool for night-school, that's how! A Subbuteo colour-change, night-light I caught in Robert Dyas, didn't get the brand and have already deleted the un-cropped originals, but I think it was about 14.99?

B is for Bouncysaurus and Buffalo, or is it Bison

Nah! Yer wash yer'hands in a by'son! An oldie but goodie! And it could be a wisent!

These are funny little novelty items, I bought a fair few about 10-15 years ago, mostly from a party shop down near Eastbourne somewhere, but a few nearer home (somewhere in Aldershot - I think?), there are Soldiers, footballers and tiny little sky-divers around 1:300-compatible in formations, a nice set of Arctic/Antarctic mammals (Killer-whale, dolphins, seals, sea-lions, walruses &etc.), fish and something else I can't remember because they are all in storage! No matter we can look at them again one day, and in the meantime these were on Clearance at the Toysaurus for a quid the other day.

What looks like a Gaur (or poorly sculpted Wildebeest?), the Bison/Buffalo/Wisent type, and a crested dinosaur, now imported by AI&E of the Netherlands. The dino is in an all-clear, hard-silicon or Whan-o secret-formula type polymer, while the two ruminants get a background of coloured flecks which are magnified into a washed out swirly-greenery effect.

One of the lots I bought way-back was an end-of-line, so I talked the shop-assistant into letting me keep the tub, as a result most of them are kept in the tub, but I always cut a few free - as samples - for future posts like this one!

You can see how much the magnification-effect is, when you release one, they are actually very small, but equally at home with Airfix soldiers and their ilk; here shown with Atlantic buffalo. Atlantic did two sets of these, one set slightly smoother (illustrated) than the other, add the bouncy-ball one and a couple of Priser's and you've got a fine heard with few duplicates!

You can also see the layering involved in getting the various elements in place. The skydivers I mentioned above are palced in their pairs, or diamonds or circles around what would be the 'Tropic of Capricorn', while below them (at the 'Tropic of Cancer') is a small disc with an aerial photograph of a landscape 'far below'. Others have both a whole-coloured and clear halves. While the soldiers and footballers are a disappointment freed of the ball, as they have no base!

W is for Wind-Up

Christmas present to me, myself and I, well you would wouldn't you? Especially when you noticed the separate bayonet taped to his pack!

 

Markings on the foot-underside changed to 'CHINA', but otherwise the mechanism is unchanged in at least 40-years, the same as the old robot we looked at ages ago which came in my Xmas stocking about 1976, they just change the case from time to time!

If you think this is 'thin gruel' for Christmas day, I have shed'Yule'd (see what I did there! Crimbooooow!) several-more posts to publish through the day as a thank-you for your support through the year and so whenever you can escape kitchen disasters, need to hide from screaming kids, dolls singing 'Frozen' in Spanish all day (will it be Moana?) or whatever you're hoping to run from; pop back here and there should be something new for you!

D is for Double-Death-Dealing Derringer!

Except, because this is Christmas, the only thing this Derringer deals-out is clarity on a dark situation!

From Brian Berke, and with the photographs telling the whole story; very much a guest-post - at which I'll take the opportunity to thank Brian for all the effort he's devoted to the blog this year, both in photographic contributions, donations to the 'master-collection' and information, background stories and . . . and . . . enjoy -

A few points raised by the images . . . I'm guessing the light shines every time you press the trigger, so blasting red-light at your nemesis!

Previously unknown (to me) Hong Kong brand MT (M'something Toys?) with a design registered in the UK and the toy on sale in the US, not an uncommon situation in the late 1950's what with HK being a UK colony and the US toy guys still quite entrenched in using the services of toy makers in 'occupied' Japan. A further confusion being that 'MT' is also a brand-mark of the - predominantly tin-plate manufacturer - Masudaya, who ARE Japanese but have a very different logo, so I don't think there's any real connection.

Power-switch disguised as a safety-lever (did Derringers have one, I doubt it! Later models perhaps?), nice touch with the matching plastic 'screw' on the pistol-grip and a bullet-charm - for the hell of it! Quality piece of festive nostalgia; did you have one under the tree once?

Reminds me of my favourite Giles cartoon, the 'Family' including Granny are creating the usual mayhem in a department store's toy department - I can't remember the punch line. But - in the background are three, large, free-standing, boxes next to the counter; one says 'Merry Festive Stuffed Toys' and is full of bears, giraffes and the like, the next is labeled 'Merry Festive Ray-Guns; and is stuffed with Jonny-Seven One-Man-Army lookie-like'ies, Tommy-guns and Space-weapons, while the third has a sign saying 'Merry Festive Stuffed Toys with Ray Guns' and is full of heavily-armed soft-toys, looking like a platoon of plush-Rambos!

Happy Christmas all! [Yeah; even the Penn-State Toy-Soldier Mafia!]

O is for Other Bikes

Really an exercise in clearing Picasa, actually a never-ending exercise! These have slowly accrued waiting for their chance to shine on the blog, and this is it . . . although most of them aren't very shiny!

The big black one is actually quite badly damaged, but on the other side! Came in a mixed-bag of odds and sods from someone (so I'll thank - alphabetically - Brain Carrick, Peter Evans, Gareth Morgan and Trevor Rudkin - to cover all the bases!) and is - I think - Cofalux, it certainly looks like others I've seen, but isn't quite the same so may not be? It'll be French though?

The other is also probably French as I don't think Wendal ever listed a fire-brigade motorcycle? Therefore it must be one of the 'alu's, but which? Cof, 'do, or Mign'! Seems to be Fire Service and photographed on Adrian's stall ages ago.

Oxford Diecast; yes I know one's not a motorbike, but this is an exercise in getting stuff off the laptop as much as it's about motorcycles!

As an aside, the tractor should be green and old Henry Marshall was a mate of Dad's and actually helped us source our Marshall's Thrashing Engine, now that's a day's hard work: thrashing corn the old way! And when you feed horse-beans into the drum, it sounds like someone's trying to open the gates of hell with a machine-gun!

This is the actual one, I painted it - so much for Rustoleum! We used to run it off a Fergie-135, but I'm afraid the salt-air got to it after a time and it was a landmark up on the cliffs for another decade or so, before the scrap-man got it - but he didn't get much!. When the tag-list says it was abandoned - it wasn't, it was used as a shelter by the eepydeeps, and I think that's Minnie or Tiddles in the background with their kids (no, they're not kids, they're lambs, goats have kids!), we specialise in black-sheep!

More, what's to say about it . . . OO-guage compatible, but a bit big for HO, reasonable detail, reasonable paint - for moulded metal - and current production . . . er, that's it!

Brilliant! I think this was a quid at Sandown Park toy fair sometime in the last few years? Seems to have just appeared in the collection! Probably Hong Kong, but unmarked, probably a copy of a better US dime-store toy of the 1950's; has similarities to the copies of the submarine bath toys and copies of Manurba mini-subs in the construction and the silver-grey plastic type . . . brilliant!

P is for Pocket-money, Pack-Presented, Putt-Putts and Plastic-Fantastic Tupperware Crotch-Rockets!

Continuing where we left-off yesterday (cheap rack-card motorcycle toys/novelties from the Far East!); this is what's come-in over the last 12 months, half of it from across the pond courtesy of Brian Berke, the other's from closer to home; lets 'av'a'luke . . .

These have collaged pretty-much in relation to each other as you can tell from the pattern on the bed-spread! I think maybe the one on the right has ended-up slightly bigger than it should be in relation to the others? From left to right we have - rubber eraser pop-together street-bikes from Shalom International (SI Corp.), a new name in the tag-list - and MTC's real cheapie party-favours, but with riders! Both from Brian.

The Ackerman set we've looked at before, but the shop had one set left so I bought it back in the summer with half an eye on rack-toy month! Five of the bikes are the same as last time, but three of them are different colour-ways. Finally a set of smaller bikes with those little pull-back motors Lego use these days, Poundland, a few weeks ago.

The rubber bikes aren't really puzzles, certainly won't go on the jig-toy page, but obviously have a fun element, although with only three parts, there's not much to do beyond have a half-and-half coloured machine! I suspect from their website these were entry-level 'test the toy market' import items, as they are now developing a more corporate range of infant toys under a separate New York-based brand: Kid-O.

MTC's are pretty standard fare for what the are, Chines rack-toys, aimed at the cheapest end of the market, but like a lot of the old Hong Kong toys of similar ilk; such as those we looked at yesterday, a bit of paint could improve them no end!

Top left is the four types together for a sizer, while the other three images are of the Ackerman bikes I left on the card last time, I've also done a bit of part-swapping on the duplicate moulding, to make them a little more sensible-looking or a tad-less garish!