O is for Other Edibles

We leave the string of bendies - for a while - but stick with edibles for another day with a post that's been over a year in the cooking . . . or should that be fermenting?

We'll start with a whingey-rant or a paean against modernity as exemplified by the Thatcherite-Raganomic free marketers!

On the left is the wrapping from a Terry's Chocolate Orange, circa 1980-something, possibly 1970-something, it matters not; on the right is the current design. The earlier version is making a good attempt at trying to look like a navel-orange with shading toward the bottom (edge of the wrapper) and the little plant-jiggit at the top (centre), while the one on the right is a random stamping from a continuous sheet and resembles one of those awful deep-pile carpet, fire-hazards in 1960's flats.

For a cost saving of nought-point-zero-zero-something per unit, quality is thrown to the wolves; progress may be progress, but it's not necessarily an improvement on what went before, and as such a failure to strive for excellence is a common thread through the modern world, it bodes ill for the future of everything!

Brain Berke sent these Coris Whistle Candy images to the Blog back in the spring, and while it's not of much interest to the toy soldier purists, it is of interest to the wider study of toys, or student of novelty items!

Obviously the pirate attracted Brain, who had one eye on TLAPD, unfortunately, the operative word is treasure, unlike the Choco/Candy Treasure we saw yesterday, this pirate being only atmospheric 'window dressing'!

The treasure actually being a transparent, doll's-house size, cooking pot! The size of the box however suggests that like Christmas cracker gifts or gum-ball capsule prizes; the novelties vary considerably in size, and if you were a young girl, with a doll's house . . . or doll; you'd be as happy with this treasure, as I might with a toy figure, or Captain Scarlet knock-off!

Imported by Hadson (Toko) Trading Co. Ltd., of New York, the whistling Polo-clones are apparently Cola flavoured . . . nom-nom-nomnivore!

The reason this post is titled 'edibles' rather than capsule toys! We saw an empty one in the Christmas novelty-fest a few years ago, now here’s a full one, common in the gutters of Britain's high streets where they skitter down the drains and try to find their way out to the sea, a sea they don't belong in, and damage by their presence!

We had some shelfies of this chap from Brian Berke  a while ago, he then sent a sample to the Blog and these are the constituent parts in close-up; he's in a rigid PVC.

Four views; I used to have a 70's or early 80's Kenner Imperial Stormtrooper, not a rare one, just the 'army-builder' and while I'm not sure if I still have him, or where he is, I think there's a fair chance you could produce a decent cut'n'shut with the Kenner legs and this torso, for a new pose . . . size wise?

Just in case you've never assembled a four-part, action-figure sized, Star Wars, model Stormtrooper Galerie provide clear and easy to follow illustrated instructions! Six to collect. 

I keep trying these plastic BIP (or Bon-Bon Buddies) eggs with their dire candies, in the hope of finding something worth adding to the collection, and keep being disappointed! There are several new ones around at the moment including Paw Patrol and Pepper Pig (all the 'P's!), I buy this shite so you don't have to!

Mentioned in passing yesterday, these Toto's from Turkey used to be a 99p Stores standard, since the Poundland takeover they have appeared sporadically in the new owner's shops, but they also have a Kinder thing going on at the same time. These were actually in Poundworld Plus, and are firmly piggy-backing the Emoji movie!

Eggs do rather lend themselves to Emoji-related graphics! Unlike yesterdays who have the same two-headed (two-emoji'ed?!!) wrapping, these all have a single-Emoji, foil wrapper.

The three toys; not one of which is Emoji-related. I can't work out the cat/bear 'Hello Miffy' thing at all, it has two red sprung-loaded widgets which may be feet, may be a collar, don't move far or with any good reason that I can tell . . . perplexing!

The mini-transformer is fun, a sort of rocket-firing/bin-lorry/Jeep-thing that unfolds into the least convincing wo'manzinger-tron you ever saw! Finally a Thunderbirds knock-off/clone of the Mole, but a cabriolet-mole! Take strong goggles, a titanium helmet and keep your shoulders low in the seat s'my advice to you Mr. Tracy!

E is for Emoticons or Emojis

I'm not terribly enamoured of the direction popular culture is going these days so I'm pleased to see the Emoji movie sunk without trace, losing money on the way, sometimes lessons need to be expensive!

Anyway, as a result various people have leapt on the Emoji bandwagon - however creaking it may be - not least the Turkish chocolate capsule-egg maker Toto, these are also Turkish, also chocolate capsule eggs and also contain recognisable Emojis, however they're not mentioned anywhere on the packaging as such, but only on the insert as 'bendy men' or 'figurines' etc...

The conclusion being that while Toto have sought and obtained a license, Choco Treasure probably have not!

Back in March or thereabouts there was an edibles post, and these were for a follow-up which got so delayed you're reading it now! Brian Berke sent these images and has eaten his way to a reasonable sample of the prizes with two of the figurines and a bendy toy, to witt - one pirate who nearly got Blogged on TLAPD, but Brian had sent another egg (uneaten - the chocolate all for me!) to the Blog, and the delayed post (which had other stuff, and was already growing) grew some more and got delayed again.

The box gives some idea as to the contents, including the poop; now - I know to some I will start to sound like my parents; but - who decided a poop was needed in 'social' media messages, who decided to design one, who coded it up, why is it still with us, who decided it would be a good idea to put it in a movie aimed at kids . . . parochial reactionary rant! Parochial reactionary rant!

Don't get me wrong, I'm no prude, and the Turd Salahi Family in Southpark are very funny, but they are a parody of American society, a poor immigrant, 'coloured' family, satire, while this one is just shit . . . and a Southpark clone!

To the egg . . .

. . . and it's teasing me with a very colorful wrap, Brians got a pirate, will I get a pirate? There's a pirate on the wrap . . . "com'mon sucker, unwrap me, you know you want to, will I have a pirate toooo?"

We have looked at Choco Treasure before I think? Non-emoji? Imported by Candy Treasure LLC of Lebanon, New Jersey and - like the Toto eggs - there is no sickly white-chocolate layer, so they are to my taste - nicer chocolate!

And while the design is slightly different with the capsule having a shelf running pole-to-pole, this would seem to have more to do with placing the egg halves than any swallowing hazard, so the question-mark about how these get in [to the 'States] while Kinder don't - still stands?

Awwww! I didn't get a Pirate, but if I was to get any other it would have to be the devil figurine, or 'Mr. Angry' and I got Mr. Angry, how very apt! But the real point of the post is that this Mr. Angry is a bendy angry.

I must say though that he's also very hard to manipulate, whether this is due to the short length of the arms, or because he's made with a heavy-gauge armature I don't know (without cutting him open), but I'd bet a week's ages on the later!

Other items available, I had a 1:34 chance of getting the one I did . . . and a 2-in-34 chance of being gifted a poop . . . just call me Lucky! Thanks Brian!

R is for Round-up - Bendy Toys

The reason I finished-off on both of the last two days with bendys is because we're already into a short 'season' of bendy toy posts - intermingled with the Halloween thing - of which this is the third of four!

Here's a thing, about 18 months ago I posted some plant-ties and pointed out that they were in every aspect the same as the old bendy-toys of my youth, a few weeks (months?) later I posted some oldies, some of which had come-in, some of which I had upstairs; then Brian Berke sent us some shelfies, then I spotted some, then some more, suddenly Bendy Toys are hot again.

In point of fact - bendy toys are all over the place! This is a quick run-through a bunch of shelfies taken by both me and Brain B over the last 12 months or so, showing bendy toys from at least 3 companies, possibly 4?

I shot this about two  months ago, TK Maxx end-of-summer clearance from NJCroce, I actually went back for it but it had gone, careful reading of the shelfied packaging reveals the wheels may not be carpet-running, so I'm not so disappointed to have missed it, but . . . the original-shape car, in huge-scale, with bendy crew . . . does it get much better . . . these days?

"Battling brake-peddles Batman! Go easy with the lead-foot; why don't you!"

Another from NJCroce, a small key-ring man bat (yes - I know there was an actual Manbat at some point, if you read every American comic ever written there have been everything-men and most-things women over the years . . . and decades!) and another of the larger figures; I suspect the same company but it's not clear.

I then went back to TK Maxx on the trail of Halloween stuff and they'd got more of the NJCroce five-figure sets both Brian and I shelfied around this time last year, this set of cartoon characters, which I don't like at all really and . . .

. . . a set which I struggled to shoot without creating a toy-landslide (TK Maxx's toy area always looks as if Barbarians have just been through it, on the way back from the pub!), so only the heads - to give you a heads-up! Design-wise they look to be the original 1950/60's types which I prefer - in fact; as I write I wonder if it isn't one of the sets we saw a year ago?.

They (TK Maxx) haven't got the single-figures in yet, but I suspect they will in time for Christmas.

Then I found monkeys in Tiger, most tiger's call that 'breakfast'! These monkeys have been skandie'fied to abecat! Grey and brown with separately heat-welded, wired-tails, they are two-quid a'piece, and going on Tiger's usual stock-runs, they should be available for the next 6-18 months.

And then I found this sitting in Brain's folder (it's still very full!), where I fear it's been languishing long enough to have missed a couple of bendy-posts; my bad.

Although; obviously he's been accidently miss-named (he's Wally in the UK!), and at $5 dollars he's very-much at the top of the price range for these as single figures, you can get 5 plant-ties for £4 at the other end of the scale . . . contents and construction; by weight, the PVC and wire being exactly the same, so must be - the unit cost, so should be - the unit price!

B is for Bendy Frankie

Yesterday's Flexi Freight bendy skeleton (16 posts below!) came with two mates who will close today's mammoth session, as we will continue with more bendy toys tomorrow. Now, I kept going back to see if there were other poses/sculpts or colourways, but this is it, and when I went to Hawkin's Bazaar in Basingrad they had the counter pack (these are all from a local independent store) with the two versions of Frankie and the skeleton on the artwork.

Branded with a sticky-tag to Tobar, (who are to Hawkin's as Accoutrements are to Archie McFee) they bear more than a passing resemblance to Dr. Frankenstein's monster who was never given a moniker, but usually ends-up being titled 'Frankie' for convenience sake. I just wish you could get the apple-green one with the pink/purple clothing!

♪♫ ♪♪ ♫ All the mon-sters were Kung-fu Fightin' ♪

♪ Dada-dada da-da..Da-da Darh! ♫

♫ Those zom-bies were aaasss fah'hast as li'hight-nin' ♫

♪ Doodoo-doodoo doo-doo..Doo-doo Doooh ♫♫♪ ♪♪♫

So we leave Halloween with an ear-worm . . if you're of a certain age! Back to normal tomorrow . . . well . . . more bendies!

M is for Monster Women and their Pesky Invasion!

Another quickie, box ticking to add info to the tag list, this one covers Accoutrements and Archie McPhee, and concerns their product line 'Invasion of the Monster Women!'. Made in a soft silicon-rubber they tend to deformation which probably won't respond to the hot-water treatment?

Issued in the late 1990's, I'm sure I remember mates having these (or something VERY similar) back in the late 1960's/70's) but I've never seen 'old' ones on evilBay, so it may be a false-memory; cross-pollinating with the many other, similar rubber-jigglers/rubber uglies et al, along with illustrations of similar monsters in books and comics?

From the left we have Spider Lady, Snake Lady, Sphinxy-phoenix Lady and Centiplady (Taratuella, Reptilica, Draconia and Sarapede respectively) and due to their truncated-human-bits and nominally-female nature they can cover a scale-range of 50-70mm.

I'm pretty sure I have Brian Carrick to thank for these, they came-in a couple of years ago and there may be the other two (Bat Lady [Vampira] and Scorpion Lady [The Scorpion Queen]) in storage, but thank you Brian C.

MIMP is for Monster In My Pocket, MEG is for Morrison Entertainment Group

There is one skeleton in this lot, so I've managed to pretty-well alternate skeleton/zombie types through the 15 posts today (still a couple to come!), and don't expect a post-fest like this next year, it's just how the cookie crumbles sometimes; how it crumbled this year!

Wing-ed Daemons!

These also came as part of the mixed lot with the Yolanda's and some other stuff a few weeks ago, I have more in storage and would have Blogged them as a box-ticker at some point; being as this sample is a reasonably sized one it might as well be now!

These are all - I think - common line/series/version/wave 1 and 2 (I'll post a link to somewhere that explains it all better at the end!) with no rarities or unusual colours. My favourite colour of these is the apple-green of the right-hand winged panther; which is also one of my favorite sculpts from the various sets, along with Tony the [Trainer] Tiger from the Wrestlers line.

The most Halloween-specific of the sculpts with two colourways of a hunchback on the ends, an evil dwarven type, a yeti, skeleton and Death himself, come to the party to deal with the salmon-moose eaters!

Katzenberg:       I don’t see it that way, Geoff. Let me tell you what I think

  we’re dealing with here, a potentially positive learning

  experience…

Grim Reaper:    Shut up! Shut up you American. You always talk, you

  Americans, you talk and you talk and say ‘Let me tell

  you something’ and ‘I just wanna say this’, Well you’re

  dead now, so shut up.

Katzenberg:       Dead?
Grim Reaper:    Dead.
Angela:              All of us??
Grim Reaper:    All of you.
Geoffrey:            Now look here. You barge in here, quite uninvited, break glasses

  and then announce quite casually that we’re all dead.

  Well I would remind you that you are a guest in this house and…

[The Grim Reaper pokes him in the eye.]
Grim Reaper:    Be quiet! You Englishmen… You’re all so fucking pompous

  and none of you have got any balls.

[ [ Monty Python ] ]

Number two (from the left) is ork'ish and number 6 is ogre'ish, the rest will have to be looked-up, I haven't had time with preparing these posts to go into the minutiae!

An Ent-like tree-monster, storm wraith and sea-monster/serpent king, all three among my favourites and a couple of oddities!

I didn't follow these at the time, except the wrestlers who came in my cereal! Matchbox reboxed some; others were in Panini blind-bags and I think there are specials, well I know there are they are on Soupies Blog somewhere (link earlier today . . . previous post?), issued with a board-game.

Actually the werewolf (2nd from the left) should have been in the Pic-2 line-up, he's very Halloween! He's in my other preferred colour of these figures

The Elephantine Ganesha is another 'like' along with the other serpent-god, but the last two don't hit my mark at all!

Probably the best link for a guide to them

T is for Top-up

Another of today's quicker posts, a top-up for-/addition to- the Yolanda tag!

These two came in with a mixed lot a few weeks ago and with one appearing to be Dracula; into the Halloween folder they went! The other seems to be some sort of club-footed Mr. Toad . . . "Poop-poop" . . . with a bionic/android arm - he's from the Toxic Crusader line, covered by Soupie (over on his MXD Blog back in 2012!) and is called Psycho

An equally brief comparison shot with their close relatives, a Monster Wrestler In My Pocket (MWIMP) on the left and one of many Millions of Uscles on the right, also showing that they are smaller than the Super Monsters from Yolanda we've looked at previously.

L is for Looking Spooky, but not in Boots!

More Spooky Spectres' of Undead Ancients, these coming from a Chinese outfit called Ningbo, via Walgreen's in the 'States and to us here at Small Scale World via New York and Brian Berke.

He only sent them the other day and the first thing I did was troll-off to Boots (a subsidiary of Walgreen) to see it they had them this side of the pond, they didn't, I asked the girl of they might have a Halloween section in the bigger stores and she ummed-and-erred, so I tried the website and for the 'Skeleton' search-term found a stick of nail polish, and a Minecraft horse in the Christmas gifts department . . .i.e.; no dice, no banana, no skeleton army!

Walgreen's promise 100% satisfaction; well - I'm 100% satisfied by what I can see (4x4 poses for a total of 16 figures), but I'm 0% satisfied by their subsidiary's stocking-of-skeleton-army's policy! I'll try the bigger stores next year, sometimes these things seem to be tested on the US market and then come over here a season later!

Close-ups of the figures; Shaun covered these about a week ago and everything said by him and the commenter's seems to stick, they are definitely derivative of the Amscan figures which we have yet to look at here.

Which reminds me, the PMS ones (earlier today) were issued here at Christmas, not Halloween? I'll have a bit of a shooftie round the discount store in December, they may yet turn-up sooner rather than later!

I love the chap with a meat-cleaver, I'm guessing a French chef who ate the wrong snail, stuck in limbo until he's paid the Ferrymen in souls! Again - as said on Shauns Fantasy Figure Blog - painted-up they'll make excellent additions to the other sets.

 

Pretty prefect for 54mm gaming or role-play, and with the Crescent 'Khaki Berserker' having Halloween off, we have a painted legionnaire (AIP) as a scaler - looks good with the sand-base as well; you have to get close to kill the undead! Don't worry; I've since taken delivery of more images from Brian and the British Berserker is already back on-station for the winter!

M is for Minus One (Countdown to Halloween)

Found far too late for the countdown, this is Morrison's effort in this year's apparent 'competition' to see who can carry the most of an extended series of bugs and things!

And it's the winner, with 12 items - all the ones we've seen, a frog, a new spider and two snakes! The skeletons looked familiar too, but as the others went straight to recycling, so did these!

Couldn't wait - opened them on the train! But a red background wasn't the best medium for shooting them. Due to the lateness of their being located, I've not done comparisons, but they seem to be the same - or from the same source - as the Sainsbury's ones. I will do a follow-up of all these sets with the Morrison's one's included.

Better picture, but I forgot one of the snakes! The bat is even worse than the first one we saw, being a rigid  polyethylene semi-flat, yellow passes for glow-in the dark, it's another 'colour rule' with this stuff, and we have pumpkin-orange (Halloween) along with black (dark side).

Viper and Cobra types are the obvious additions to the 'oeuvre' and apart for the comedy-tongues, they're not bad.

Z is for Zombie Toy Soldiers!

These came out a couple of years ago; EMCE Toys 'Previews Exclusive, Zombies At War', and come three each of five poses in two colors for a full 30-count, medium hardness PVC and a tad on the small size at around 45/50mm

This was originally going to be it, as far as imagery goes - along with the captioned one at the end - but I was never too happy with it, it enlarges OK but it's a bit grainy and the contrast is all wonky but it shows all the figures, and can stay, as I hate chucking every image from a shoot!

The GI's, placed somewhere between WWII and Vietnam (one's got a M16-alike), they're not heavily equipped and the chap with a pack has one that defies ID'ing as a piece of service kit!

What's more  of a mystery is that two of the figures; 3rd and 5th from the left, appear to have been designed to interact with accessories - which are not present - both having almost 'grippy' hands and poses that need a support of some kind?

The Germans are clearly WWII, with no's 2 and 3 from the left also seeming to need-/be designed for- missing props or scenic items. That second one is also equipped with a similar main pack and utility 'bat-belt' as the GI!

The guy with the Luger/Mauser/Captain Scarlet blaster is doing a good job of balancing on one leg, and while the commander (middle figure) is holding someone else's leg; number five is holding his own arm in a rather macabre fashion!

Kelly's Zero's

As always with this horror/fantasy stuff; Shaun was way ahead of the wave, so there's more here.

D is for Dragon Domain

Just a quick shelfie from TK Maxx for this post, again; not really Halloween'ish per se, but where else do you post dragons this close to Halloween?

'Big Box' set from HGL, very similar to their Megasurs sets (coming soon), and like them I'm guessing there were other sizes of Dragon Domain set, PVC, mixed-to-no-scale, Chinagons!

K is for Killersaurs!

Not really Halloween fodder, but they ARE 'horror' in execution so they've been waiting in the folder for today, and I know absolutely sweet-Fanny-Adams about them!

Dinosaurs with a horror twist, I suspect a larger set, or a blind-bag thing, but they are bigger than most Blind-bag stuff, but no bigger than the Hobbit/LotR's stuff? The red one is missing an arm - probably got in a fight with one of the others down the water-hole!

Close-ups of two of them; 'twistyneck's got a twist in his neck, while the 'tyranoseratops' is the least silly of the bunch, does anyone know what they are or who made them?

Close-ups of the other two; another 'tyranoseratops' and the red one which I like the most as he's the most 'deformed' (not a comment on his missing arm) and it's typical that the damaged one is the nicest! Came in a mixed lot from a charity shop!

Z is for Zombie Figurines

Not often we get a descent zed in the tag-list and this one comes courtesy of Brian Berke, from where it's actually zee-for-zombie, but the effect is the same . . . ZOMBIES! These are the ones Johnny Rockets mentioned in a comment the other day . . .

. . . . and currently for sale in Dollar Tree stores over the pond. The set titled Zombie Figurines and at around 54mm they are ideal for all your Zombie scenarios, planed or future! I particularly like the two zombie-dogs, but you also get a pair of gravestones (which will enhance any Deadstone Valley scenes . . . Ed!) and eight zombies (? I'm working off the photographs!) along with a couple of human 'normals' running away.

The two humans are not the best sculpts, being rather caricaturist in the faces and having cartoony bendy-bodies, but the zombies look fine., except the bloke on the far right who is either coming out of the ground (does that make him technically undead rather that zombie? Risen-dead?!!) or dragging a double-leg amputation torso around? He is also a bit comic in his execution.

Brian has started painting his; with the women felling the brush first and by painting the running 'normal' as a zombie he's cleverly hidden the cartoonishness in a layer of mouldy zombie-flesh . . . all very Halloween - thanks Brian!

Carried-in by Greenbriar/DTSC, Shaun had already found them, more pictures and close-ups here.

F is for Follow-up -Poundworld-Plus Insects

Well . . . I bought them . . . it's funny, a few years ago I never would have bothered with this stuff, and - indeed - have been studiously  not buying the other set since the store opened back in the spring (or was it last year? I can't remember when I first Blogged their stuff?), but after the plethora of insects came together in one day last year (or the year before!) and with the Halloween tat piling-up this year, it's almost like why wouldn't I? And when you follow the traffic-stats per-post; it's funny what people actually want.

Buying the other set the other day obviously triggered a re-stock message back at head office as there were a whole bunch more when I was in the other night, and sure enough the other six of the "12 to collect" are on the other card, so 'two to collect' really!

No spiders in this sample, but we get two longer coffin/ground beetle types, three more hedge/garden beetles (the yellow one is very chafer-like) and a roach-alike.

They still look better dead! Gas! Gas! Gas!