Both Brian Berk and myself have been busy
since August taking shelfies of Chinasaur Dinosaur sets, which have been gathering in a folder with a vague aim of doing something at Christmas in the back of my
mind, this is that something, it's nearly Christmas . . . so!
Starting to recognise the different
shelving in Brian's shelfies I think these will be found in Walmart, 'State-side? Largish-looking
scale/size wise and nicely decorated; since the Chinese started finding such
well preserved evidence in their sedimentary beds, toy makers (and dinosaur
artists generally) have got more experimental in their decorating of them,
particularly the larger models.
Although tending to use snakes and lizards
for their guiding-influence, rather than birds, as they probably should, true
reptiles being a separate branch of the taxonomic tree - I believe - from
dinosaurs; the two groups existing side-by-side for hundreds of millions of
years.
The back of the box has the sort of
info-panel kids' love collecting, cutting them out and keeping safe in 'their'
drawer or a little folder or something! But spot the deliberate (not!)
mistakes!
Ten out of ten for Kid Galaxy from this critic! Four more; the . . . Monoceratops, Multiceratops
(? Front-horn's too long for a Styracosaurus) is particularly striking I think.
Meanwhile I was over in TKMaxx taking shelfies as well, these
are less well decorated (or 'traditionally' decorated - blast from an angled
airbrush both sides and brushed highlights in a contrasting colour!) beasts
from HGL (formally H Grossman) being sold here as a four or
five lot (check-out the blue one's neck for a bonus!), but also available . . .
. . . as a proper old-school play set!
Twenty-nine dino's and a tree . . . and a volcano!
The volcano being filled with mini-saurs
and - despite picking-up a lot of mini-saurs in recent years - not instantly
recognisable - so possibly new sculpts, or new to me anyway. I was tempted, as
well; 16-quid makes them just over 50p each, cheap as a bag of junk at a toy
show! But it's a 'big ticket' at one swoop and they'll be in charity shops for
less eventually, so I'll wait!
Back to Brian's snapping and we have this
set of 55-pieces, most of which also seem to be Chinasaurs, rather than scenics
or flimsy transparent volcanoes! Also in Walmart
and the count is in part arrived at with duplication, but even if it's 24
sculpts and a tree, it's gonna'be good value for younger relatives this
Christmas!
These come with a mildly amusing story of
uptight British mannerisms - I needed to buy a small paint-tray, and no one in
town had one (well, Baker's would
have but it was a Wednesday afternoon so they were closed!) that wasn't part of
a large set, every other piece of which I had no yearning for!
The chap who's recently taken over the odd
& sods shop did have one, but it was less than three quid and I only had my
card on me, so feeling guilty as we walked back to the till, I grabbed these
two as I felt I needed to 'make-up' the amount; terribly British nonsense, but
there you are - by accident of birth!
Anyway, they were 1.99 each and took the
total over six pounds so 'honour' was restored, or achieved or whatever the
Brit's think they are doing when they unnecessarily buy stuff to feel better
about buying stuff from someone who sells stuff - for a living!
The orange one seems to be the least well
painted of the set of six we've seen some of before here, sold singly in Poundland (or 99p Stores before their demise) and shelfied in TKMaxx last year as a threesome (I've seen them elsewhere in ones
or threes) this one branded to Tobar.
The other is new and gives us another tag; Out of The Blue, a German importer, how
he ended-up sharing a shop-stock box with the Tobar is something only the stock-keeper knows!
Another shelfie from Brian, but this one
taken in a British seaside town during one of his visits to the homeland, and
it's a seaside classic, baggy ethylene sack with flimsy card header claimed by Kandytoys and all ready to populate a
sandcastle! They look to be older sculpts from the 1970's or '80's getting
another outing?
I'm not sure 'Go Back To 180 Million Years Ago'
is quite the message our tourist destinations should be broadcasting in these
Bwreaksit times though? Although, maybe they're preparing for the end of
tourism, the shackling of horses to cars and the re-learning the art of living
off swede or turnip soups' when not waving two fingers at 'Johnny-foreigner'
over the Channel?
Finally,
some vintage 'Frankosaur' action with this charming Stegosaurus I shot on
Adrian's table at a resent Sandown Park toy fair. Starlux (for it is they) did some lovely sculpting for their
prehistoric range, given the age they were made and this is a little peach, if
a tad miserable-looking, but eating tree-ferns and cycads all day without getting eaten by something bigger can't have been a particularly joyous existence!
