Thought for the Day 5

For marketers, salesmen and political campaigners. . .

Advertising is the rattling of a stick 

in a swill-bucket

- H. G. Wells

12 is for Days of Christmas - Day Eleven

Back to construction vehicles, a whole grid of F1 racers (one of the Spanish or Turkish chocolate egg issuers had a similar set), an equal number of dragsters and the very hard to find micro-AFV's.

News, Views Etc . . . Christmas Cuttings

A lot of 'News Views' stuff has accumulated since the end of October and hopefully I'll be processing it in a few posts over the next couple of weeks, but as this is the penultimate day of Christmas, these need to go ahead and both light the way for the forthcoming posts and help draw a curtain on Christmas!

These two figural baubles were available from John Lewis, I particularly like the Elephant! And - of course - the two nicer ones are more expensive!

While Habitat on-line was offering these three robot baubles @ 20-quid for the set of three, they are too cool for mech-school!

Paperchase have had a set of three robot glass baubles for the last few years, but they are also about £20 and they're half the size, so I'm waiting 'till they appear in a charity shop . . . and they will!

I haven't the faintest idea what's going on here, suffice to say the Elf on a Shelf is not "A Christmas Tradition", he only started to be mentioned here (in the UK) a few years ago and like Halloween is - I suspect - some marketing-driven import from the New World, he's an ugly little shit, making the sternest nutcracker look cuddly!

They're so excited!

The advert seems to be a marketing ploy to get maximum personal details from dim-witted readers as possible in exchange for ten 'things' which the small print makes clear won't look anything like the illustration . . . who falls for this crap? 'But he's rather sweet, and the kiddies like him!' Fuck-off - you simpering simple-minded simpletons; you'd buy a polished turd if the tabloids told you it was this season's retro-cool, or that 'Eurocrats' don't want you have one, are planning to ban them or make them all a standard length!

I dare say most of the UK readers and a fair number of overseas viewers will know exactly what this is, but I'll plow-on regardless; to tick a box!

Ladies and gentlemen - this is the image that launched a thousand, nay, nay and thrice nay  . . . TEN-thousand tabloid column-inches back in Mid-November. Being the last picture in a 24 (not 25!) window advent calendar issued by Gregg's, our national bakery and snack/sandwich-shop chain.

Yes, that is the Little Baby Jesus depicted as a sausage-roll*, and yes, he's had his head (or feet? It's hard to tell from this angle!) bitten-off by a hungry, lunching, office-worker!

Really it was a storm in a tea-cup and the usual twisted, protestant-outrage of the tabloids, no one has complained about the other 23 images (Cheops' Great Pyramid fashioned of a giant crashed space-sandwich, shepherd's flock-hills of buns, that sort of thing), nor the 24 vouchers  for cheap snacks and breads hidden behind/attached to the windows! I'm more interested in the three figures!

Pugh's take on the 'scandal' (Gregg's apologised profusely, but the publicity is unlikely to have hurt them one bit!) seen in the Daily Wail on November the 16th.

* For visitors to the blog who may not be familiar with the item, a sausage-roll - especially a cheap one from a high-street chain - is a machine-extruded tube of processed sawdust bound-together with rusk and a bit of gypsum, flavoured with road-kill and too-much pepper, the whole contained within an egg or milk-glazed, hot, damp, cardboard tube - we built an Empire on them!

Thought for the Day 4

For the snide and the humourless . . .

Nothing shows a man's character 

more than what he laughs at

- Unknown

12 is for Days of Christmas - Day Ten

Yesterday's archers from the other side, the simple two-part knights who were nice but rather relaxed poses and the wacky 'clip-together' figures. Behind them, not so clear are the smaller Samurai, also simple mouldings.

B is for Birdmen, Bots and Something Else Beginning with B!

Captain Video was a kid's TV show in the 'States in the 1950's, although as the brand seems to have 'travelled', particularly to France, it may have had a wider audience? Running against shows like Tom Corbett Space Cadet and Space Patrol, they were the equivalent of the previous era's movie-matinee Flash Gordon and Buck Rodgers serials; or later era's Dr. Who, Star Trek and err . . . Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon again! That makes it about time - or even overdue - for someone to resurrect Captain Video!

I don't know if the figures bare any relationship to the TV series, but as they all look humanoid (and could have been 'worn', as costumes) I guess they are representative of some of the characters from some of the episodes? I'm sure TJF can correct me!

We have looked at them before here, but these are recent additions, so I thought I'd use the opportunity to have a closer look. It's very hard to say with any degree of definitiveness which figure is by which company, however it’s fair to say glossy polystyrene ones in primary colours (1 & 7) are probably from Lido's stable, or their French importer, however there may well be a UK source for these, Bell or Kleeware would fit nicely but I don't know. I'm sure TJF can correct me!

Reamsa (PVC; 6) and Trovadore (polyethylene) kindly mark theirs (if only Pech did!) but the mark carried over to a more recent re-issuer (2), phenolic/cellulose (5 & 8) types are (if found here) probably UK copies while the unmarked metallic's (2 & 3) prove more problematical.

The figures are also a rather amorphous group of poses which are from a set of twelve original or 'base' figures, but have been issued in different sizes and configurations, with Lido themselves seemingly not issuing the 'straight human' poses in the same numbers as the 'aliens' especially in the larger sizes, in the smaller size all 12 are as common as each other and the humans turn up more frequently compared to the more exotic creatures/robots.

They break down into four groups;

Humans - Four Poses (yellow figure, small scale premium, damaged)

Birdmen - Three Poses

Cat People with Respirators - Two Poses (metallic-green figure above)

Robots - Three Poses, although there are two similar 'pulp'-bots and one which looks more like a knight-in-armour (other two green figures above), with a ray gun!

The two Reamsa's in this current sample, although the grey one is in a modern-day tinny polyethylene and is almost certainly a re-issue probably from Capell? The earlier one is a PVC rubber as used by a few Spanish companies in the 1950's (Teixido and Pech y Hermanos spring to mind!) and the gold coating he (she, it?)'s been given has - over-time - reacted with the substrate to produce a sandy texture which makes it hard to clean, and you can see how while the figure photographs quite silver, the very bright light of the scanner has revealed a golden-brown residue of the factory finish, deeper in the surface.

Showing some base variation; there are also pod-foot and 'twin-baselett' types out there. I think the robot may be a re-issue as well, as he's impossibly clean, but he could be an unloved/un-played-with Lido survivor?

Some shots I took a while ago, the two on the left (now in my sample and also pictured above) have been cut-back to their footwear by a previous owner, on the right are a 'twin-baselett' Birdman and a whole version of the Lido marching robot.

Provisional listing

Known

Alca Capell (or 'Al-Ca' or 'Capell')

Were probably responsible for the more recent reissues of the four [still base-marked to-] Reamsa copies of Lido, having a history of purchasing other moulds - they also inherited some of Casanellas' metal moulds, I believe.

·         42 - 'Knight' with ray gun?

·         43 - Robot striding?

·         44 - Robot waving with syringe-tool?

·         45 - Bird-man with side-arm?

Shusssh . . . can you hear TJF and his cock-wakin' monkey-lizard rushing-off to see if it says Puchol on page 200-and-something in some tome? I don't care; they're tinny, soapy reissues!

Dumont Plastics

Licensed the Lido figures for a large gift-set which contained 18 figures; taken as twos or threes from three poses of the bird-men and two-each of the cat-men and robots.

·         Captain Video and his Video Rangers (window gift box with pop-up display-back)

Lido

Invented the line, producing it in various configurations of carded and boxed set, and is credited with the smaller, scaled-down figures supplied to other sources. From O'brian (via Kent Specher) we know that Lido was created by brothers Effrem and Seymour Arenstein in 1947, and produced 'dime store' toys and novelties - quite prolifically - until 1964 when the company was sold to a Bala, who themselves ceased trading the following year, Gabriel Industries bought the rump but most of the moulds were sold for scrap, and given that the US figures all date from before this time we can be confident the Captain Video mould/s were among those lost at that time.

·         Atomic Cannon (boxed 'dragster')

·         Pursuit Ship (boxed 'A'-frame)

·         Rocket Tank (boxed twin-tailed spaceship)

·         Troop Transport (boxed 'zeppelin')

·         Missile Patrol with Rocket Launcher (assorted vehicles, figures and accessories, carded and bagged)

·         1403 - Moon Shot (four figures and cork-pistol, blister-carded)

Post Cereals

Issued the 12 Lido scale-downs in their Raisin Bran breakfast cereal, Kent Specher dates them to 1953.

·         Captain Video Space Man (one per pack of cereal)

Puchol

See Alca Capell (above) and Reamsa (below)

Reamsa

Issued four of the Lido poses (as copies) in their Saturn Patrol Interplanetary War (Patrulla Saturno Guerra Interplanetaria) sets, gold-decorated figures being named Marcianos (Martians) and the undecorated; Lunaticos ('Lunatics' - Moon Men) in a PVC rubber, the gold paint giving the Martians a sandy texture over time. Modern re-issues in bright gold and plain grey ethylene were issued a while ago, possibly by Alca Capell or Puchol, depending on whether Oliver inherited the mould first. Each figure is numbered on the base below the Reamsa lozenge.

·         42 - 'Knight' with ray gun

·         43 - Robot striding

·         44 - Robot waving/throwing with syringe/grenade-tool

·         45 - Bird-man with side-arm

Rex Jouets

Produced [probably pirated] copies of Pyro X-100 spaceships (with French-language wing titles Terre (Earth) and Mars) and helmeted spaceman of a derivative (ex-Bonux) style, none of Lido design, untitled, but all in the manner of the Techni-Plaste Captain Video carded sets.

·         [Two Figures] (bent-stand carded with spaceship)

·         [Three Figures] (bent-stand carded with spaceship)

·         [Four figures] (bent-stand carded with spaceship)

Techni-Plaste

A French company were supplied by Lido with bare mouldings for their lovely boxed set 'Captain Video and his Equipment' (Capitaine Video et ses Equipages), they also issued them on smaller cards with a vehicle and three figures in the Lido style.

·         M436 - Capitaine Video et ses Equipages (12 figures, 4 vehicles and other accessories in Dumont style gift box)

Trovador

An Argentinian company produced eponymous base-marked copies of Lido's figures titled Explorers of Space.

·         Exploradores del Espacio

Unknown

UK

Sets in a phenolic or cellulose resin, copied from Lido and branded to Winco (abbreviation for [Air-]Wing Commander) Condar; an obvious take on Captain Condor the Lion comic strip and a definite candidate for a Star Wars name!

·         Winco Condar's Interplanetary Spacemen (4 figures on card)

USA

The smaller figures (which may or may not be Lido-supplied) have been issued as premiums or gum-ball capsule prizes.

Thought for the Day 3

For popularists everywhere . . .

The ultimate result of shielding men

from the effects of folly

is to fill the world with fools

- Herbert Spencer

12 is for Days of Christmas - Day Nine

Two of the most sought after series of all the steckfiguren, the Samurai - which I've never been that impressed by - as sculpts they are clumsy, but they look quite stunning en-mass, and the Renaissance archers who are some of the best figures they made.

P is for Plastic Premiums in Packets

Just a quickie, I shot these a while ago, and while we've seen them here at Small Scale World a couple of times now I think these are premium packets, possibly breakfast cereal, and someone may know more about them . . . TJF will undoubtedly know all about them after his CWML has been sent off to ask the Vichy, but I'm thinking of others!

Anyway; here they both are, Comansi's 70-odd+ mil Thunderbirds figures in the earlier polyethylene (where you usually encounter them with paint), but unpainted like the later floppy, PVC ones and separately placed in the sort of packaging you get cereal premiums in?

Although they are only folded closed, so more like Christmas cracker inserts; cereal premiums tend to be sealed, did someone else (or Comansi themselves) do Thunderbirds crackers?

I took them separately, but unfortunately by moving the camera closer, rather than moving the figures, or photographing the other side or something sensible like that! Further, by the time they've been cropped and collaged (you'd find them even more boring if I gave them up as separate images!), there's no real difference . . . soz for that!

Here's one I did earlier! A scale comparison with Marx in two sizes, the 70mm astronauts and 45mm Space Patrol and one of the Hong Kong made 'Bat-Bots' we looked at a few weeks ago.

241 words . . . is that enough? Can someone ask the Jabbering Fuck if my SEO thingy will get marked-down on this one . . . 'cos I really, really give a shit, but don't tell him I sent you; he'll probably bust a blood vessel. That's 290, no 91, 92 and two . . . no . . . three images? That's got to be enough hasn't it?

Look Ma! I'm king of the Internet! Ff...Shit! Was that an iceberg? What's an iceberg doing in the god-damned Internet!