News, Views Etc . . . More Stuff!

MPC Mini Ships

Donald D. Hood got in touch from the US of A with loads of fascinating minutiae on the MPC mini-ships, he has real life stuff going-on at the moment, but I'm hopeful that at some point he will flesh out his revelations for the Blog.

In the meantime; it appears many of the MPC vessels are in fact copies of models from other manufacturers, for instance - the Varicella was previously issued as a die-cast by Tri-Ang Minic (along with one of the tugs), several of the battleships seem to be copies of earlier Renwal mini's and the tramp steamer may be from a Lindberg (Pyro) set, along with both ACW 'Ironclad' vessels?

Anyway - hopefully more to come on this one. He also confirmed that there was a retail issue, but of smaller-quantity sets than the comic offers.

Other Ships . . . and cats!

While we're on ships, I found these decorating pedestrian underpasses in Basingrad the other day.

 I don't know the connection (I'll Google it)** between square-rigged, three-decked warships and landlocked Basingstoke, but I'm guessing that if the floods allow either of these to hove into view, you'll be beyond the help of the flooding-helpline!

**Nothing on Google, but it seems one of them is looking like HMS Victory?

The cat is a running gag in Basingrad between one or more graffiti artists and the local authority; which seems to tolerate the understated and artistic stencils! I photographed the other three in a separate set of underpasses some distance from the mosaic ship murals, a couple of years ago for my - then more-active - Faceplant page.

Bible Stories

This chap has been sat in Brain Berke's Folder for too long, he sent it soon after I Blogged the others, shelfie of David (of Goliath fame) from Beverly Hills Teddy Bear (via Greenbriar/DTSC)

Maxxi Toys

Peter Evans has sent another Apache Clan Collection set to the Blog, this one with the 'trotting' cowboy horse, and two new figures, there was the same bag of candy drops, along with another two pieces of fence (so I can now make a four-sided mini-corral) and palm.

While the figures are a bit semi-flat or demi-ronde both would look very acceptable with a re-paint and the cowboy has a plug-in bag of swag, which would make a useful piece of Stagecoach luggage!

I should also point out the cowboy has suffered the same pants-failure as Mr. I. Wraite's Indian and further; that Stuart Asquith had found the same figures in Funtastic branded packaging in Poundland stores; as reported in Plastic Warrior magazine No. 159 a few years ago (20 months odd?), a full report in that issue's letters (back issues available) shows four different foot figures and six foot Indians not seen here - yet!

The pirate set Brian B found

Artwork's apparently stolen for DVD's or Game packaging!

29-05-2018 - Now known to be being carried by Aliki on the continent and Liberty Imports in the 'States.

Smyths Christmas Stock

I was over in Farnborough checking out the almost empty aircraft-hanger that is Smyths new superstore, looking for Halloween stuff (they had none!) the other day, and picked up a catalogue, I also took the above shelfie of the only thing on their half-mile+ of shelves which caught my eye. It's the same Street machine stuff we saw back in Rack Toy Month (and a recent News, Views . . . it's the bottom-row which really interests), but without the Pioneer branding, nor the Pro Engine Series stuff.

Of more interest are these four sets in the Christmas catalogue; I'm sure there's more around if you Google them, but while some 3D printing stuff is taking a while to get fully off the ground, it is interesting to see really quite cheap aids to modelling (as these are) in the kids stores. I might try 6 or 7? And if you've got kids, you've got an excuse for buying!

They seem to be UV light-activation systems with a reactive polymer-gel or paste, rather than liquid-deposition or powder-based laser-sintering systems, but I can see applications there for war gamers and modellers?

Building armatures, or building onto wire-armatures for instance, scenic efforts, trees, barb-wire entanglements maybe? And with the moulds on the magic maker looking to be flimsy styrene vac-forms, you could develop your own moulds for repeat items, small bunkers, sand-bag emplacements, conversion turrets, wheel/tyre halves etc...

Blog

Several records/near-records have been broken in the last few days, with most posts in a year, 2nd best month ever and definitely still on track for the 3-millionth hit inside 11 months - ten to go! And I will post the 2,000th (visible) post here, any day now, if indeed this isn't it, I've been busy away from the Blog this last week and got behind with 'housekeeping'!

News

Not much since the last News, Views . . . ; all the quarterly results (which generate the toy-related headlines) have been posted and caught by the previous few posts. I think there was another Lego plug in the 'i' and there was more on the Toysaurus (US-side) but I haven't done the cuttings this week yet.

One story which did grab me, although not really affecting the hobby directly was the one about evilBay, Amazon and Co. profiteering from overseas sellers not charging VAT, this is not about second-hand toys or cack like that, but rather new goods, electronics and higher-end consumer-stuff, which are offered at below high street prices by sellers over the Channel or Irish Sea, and which should include VAT, to be taken by the platform and handed to HMRC.

It's not an immediate threat to us, but - as a bit of a scam - it'll become a stick for governments to beat the silicon-valley people with, especially when old-media, establishment paper's like the Daily Wail decide to crusade on the issue.

Link

The Scythian exhibition at the British Museum now has a Blog-post.

T is for Two - Hollow-cast Wild West

Picasa clearer - shot at Sandown Park toy fair - I think - in 2014 and both interesting in the own way, they also illustrate how far we've come in toy soldier [figure] design.

Cowboys, no arguing with that, Made in Occupied Japan so probably aiming at the US market and possibly AHI or Shackman or someone like that? Copies of a Johillco foot cowboy - four of them! - and a mounted figure which bears a passing resemblance to a Hill figure too.

The contents of this set are arguably poorer, with more scenic accessories than figures and two guys surrendering! It's called Timpo Ranch Set . . . who do you need to surrender to on a ranch . . . big, bad, beef barons!

The set however has a thin veneer of fame, having previously been seen in Norman Joplin's Big Book of Hollow Cast - pp.241, fig.475. In which it is explained that the contents are a mixture of Stoddart and Timpo items although the mounted and armed poses also bear a marked resemblance to Hill's output.

Apologies are due - as I think we've seen it before here at Small Scale World; clearly I was so impressed by its provenance I photographed it both times I saw it!

M is for Moggie Traveller

A bit of pure nostalgia today, we had two of these, a second-hand grey one made in the 1960's which was a good runner, and a factory-fresh, dark 'Trafalgar Blue' one made under the union troubles of the 1970's which never quite lived-up to expectations and helped explain how we handed the British motor-trade to Japan and Germany - rather as Trump is currently surrendering US global influence to Russia and China!

Basically a Morris Minor with a box on the back, whenever our parents went to a dinner party, drinkie 'do' or whatever (what happened to all that formal socialising, it seems to have died a death! I blame Aynge!), my brother and I would be taken along; with our sleeping bags and left out in the car . . . saved a fortune in babysitter fees!

The weird thing is I can still remember the number plate - POT 698G - over most of the vehicles . . . err . . . all the vehicle's I've ever owned!

Vanguards from Lledo, box is a bit sun-faded! If I recall correctly - our radiator-grill bars were colour matched to the car bodywork, rather than having a big wide cream or white grin, like some models, that was the height of sophistication through factory customisation or 'optional extras' in Post War Britain!

Also while the date given on the enclosed papers suggest this is meant to show an earlier model, they had saluting 'wing' indicators recessed into the side-pillars which later vehicles like our second one and the depicted model didn't have.

We also used to get left in it while mum went shopping, and once in the no-horse village of Hartley Wintney's high street (the A30!), we got into trouble after getting bored, opening the sliding side window and shouting "Bloody-bugger-shit-bloody-bugger-shit-bloody..." at passing traffic - until some offended old lady called the police!

The Rozzer's found mum, she told dad, we sat-down very gingerly for a day or two, those where the day huh? A bit of casual violence toward children - begat half-sensible adults! Kids - "Banana-car!" is a safer game.

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!