News, Views Etc . . . PW Show Date

I can be a real horse's cock sometimes! I have the next article for Contribution Fortnight, but ran out of time editing it yesterday, so was going to have a big session today with the Blog (I've some Airfix up-dates as well!), but have just got here (Internet place!) without my power-lead's 'second bit', so I've fifty-one minutes (and counting . . . down!) to do all my eMailing etc...with a rather dark power-save screen!

As I had promised Paul at Plastic Warrior Magazine I'd post his news as soon as I'd finished the contribution 'season', and given that a hiatus is as good as an ending . . .

. . . the show dates for Plastic Warrior are confirmed and the poster has gone out!

Feel free to pinch and re-post! Full details are available and/or new information will appear first at the following places:

Facebook

Blogger

eMail; pw.editor@ntlworld.com

Or keep an eye on Brian's Blog - The old website is to be run-down/retired.

Normal service should be resumed tomorrow, but the 'best laid plans...' and all that; there may be a gap 'till Tuesday . . . Doh!

C is for Contribution Fortnight - XIII - Yoga Joes from Brian

Brian shot these in New York (Grand Central Terminal no less!) before Christmas, and while they have been flagged-up elsewhere over time, they are still needed to 'tick the box' here at the Smallscaleworld.

Also it's interesting to see both the packaging - which holds each figure in its specific pose - and the apparent size of them; they are around 90/100mm, putting them in a different class to the various civilian sets like Kid Robot's street kids or the Toy Boarders from AJ's

 

YogaJoes from Brogamats ; Brian reports they were 'pricy' and they do look displayed to temp the memento-seeking tourist rather than the toy fan!

C is for Contribution Fortnight - XII - Airfix Ready-made AFV display from Glenn

Glenn sent this from the other side of the world, literally, not figuratively as he lives in the land of the lazy parrots and a walking fruit with a long bill! Not, as I'd previously said; the land of the "...laast of the vee-ehyt inter'cepters" and where the mice can be 7-foot tall and box each other before breakfast - that's a land of a very different hue, many leagues hence from New Zealand - where Glenn lives!

It is quite the most perfect picture of a display of the 2nd version Airfix 'ready-mades' I've ever seen, with the modern over the WWII, the green over the grey, the biggies to the left, gun and tractors on top, it all fits, it all works, perfect!

Thanks Glenn!

C is for Contribution Fortnight - XI - Not Kinder Star Wars Chocolate Eggs from Brian

Here's a funny thing - not the subject of today's post; that's very serious, the destruction of whole planets long, long ago, far, far away! - But that several sources have claimed that Kinder eggs are 'banned', 'illegal' or 'not allowed' in the USA . . . yet these have turned-up in New York?

Main branding is to Disney 'Distributed by Galerie' from Hebron, Kentucky with a Kentucky logo hidden-away on the consumer data label, but both the manufacture of the chocolate and the packaging are attributed to Mexico, while we know Disney use various contract-manufacturers in China for their toy products.

Now it seems clear that the FDA do act against the import of Kinder and have arrested people for bringing them into the country, so how have these got 'under the radar'? It could of course - upon finding these - be seen as a bit of protectionism, along the lines of 'put Kinder off and we'll sort out a domestic product (in Mexico!) that will exploit the same market niche. How long the Mexico connection will last is under the new administration is anyone's guess, but 'not long' would appear to be the writing on the wall!

And I'm not joking, nor am I 'having a go' at my American readers - if there's one other western democracy in equal trouble it's bloody Britain! However, it's a fact that Donald 'fascist loon' Trump (that IS designed to upset some people!) is telling US companies (like Galerie/Kentucky (?) and/or Disney?) to move production back to the US, but you can't make novelties like this to a competitive retail price with profit margin, on US wage-rates . . . unless you use 'illegal's - but they all have to go back, oh yes folks, all going back!

The Kinder-like item in a Kinder-clone capsule; it looks like it could be used as a pencil-top, although it's not marketed as such. Torso-only is a bit outside the Blog's remit (like; as if  the Blog's got ANY remit!), but I know a lot of figure painters prefer a torso to a full figure and while these are on the small side they could nevertheless be painted-up to a higher standard and would look good on a shelf together.

They also look like those vinyl-record turntable, centre-point novelties you used to get back in the 1950's like the mop-headed Beatles or Banania's French pop-stars; spinning round like the demented inmates of some musical hell, or indeed, just like that pencil-top/eraser of the Batman; which Brian sent us - a while back! Thanks Brian!

C is for Contribution Fortnight - X - Arco Cap-firing 'Space Tank' SPG from Clarence

Along with the playset we looked at the other day, Mr. Clausey also sent me a couple of shots of what is best described as a bloody-great behemoth of a thing! Clarence has been picking these up off eBay when he sees them and has a battery of five now!

Described by Clarence as an Arco cap-firing tank, I started to dig-around Google and see if I could find out more about it, in fact I couldn't find anything, until I added 'Combat Force' to the mix, whereupon I found the item currently listed on evilBay for 50-odd dollars, but credited to DSI (Diversified Specialists Inc.) Toys [or DSIT], so I pulled the post and frantically emailed Clarence to double-check the Arco connection.

The enemy appears to have got round behind the battery (of guns) to interdict the [battery] power source!

Clarence got back to me with an assurance that Arco is moulded onto all his examples, along with other marks (MAC*XI), so we can assume that they (Arco) supplied these 'Weapons of Mass-destruction' to DSI. More womble'ing on Google reveals that DSI specialised in this kind of toy alongside dolls (far more money in dolls than we 'boys toys' fan's imagine), between 1970 and 2003; when they ceased trading.

As Arco were themselves absorbed by their then parent Mattel in 1997, having been bought by them in 1986, and with the DSI version being boxed in 1991, they were clearly marketed by Arco, with Mattel's permission, probably sourced from an anonymous OEM in China and shipped through 4th or 5th parties to DSI . . . such is the modern toy industry, and with everyone in the chain wanting a percentage or two of profit . . .

. . . but enough of the boring bit! This thing automatically fires 8-shot cap drums, while driving about! It's like a self-propelled Lone Star six-shooter! Well . . . eight-shooter. Compatible with standard 3¼" (90-odd millimetres) action figures popularised in the 1980's following Mattel's famous Star Wars franchise figures from the late 1970's, it has three dedicated stations for them, two cupolas 'up front' with hatches and a seat 'up-top' for the gunner.

The mechanism is similar to that in a cap-gun but a one-way, inner, toothed-gear wheel - set onto the same face that receives the ammunition 'magazine' - is operated by battery-powered electric signal, to trigger firing, rather than a manual mechanism.

The same power-pack provides movement forwards and in reverse and all in all the DSI, Arco or 'and' Arco-Mattel rendition of the Remote Control Combat Force Ring-cap Firing Mobile Attack Cannon [Battery Operated] is a beast!

Under all the weaponry is a basic M1 Abrahms chassis, but the beast reminds me more of some of the experimental 1950's Russian SPG's which turned-up in ex-Soviet museums after The Wall came down! Really it's a 'Space Tank'!

Thanks for sharing it with us Clarence

06th-Feb - Late Addition - Arco on Nu-Earth!