News, Views Etc . . . Forthcoming Events

Auctions first this week, with three up-coming (is that bad English? I think that's bad English . . . well; sod it!) over the next week . . .

Sunday 22nd July 2018

Newbury - Special Auction Services (SAS)

81 Greenham Business Park, Newbury, West Berkshire, RG19 6HW

Web: www.specialauctionservices.com

eMail: mail@specialauctionservices.com

Tel: 01635 580595

Fax: 0871 714 6905

Transport Models (first half of a split, two-day sale)

Monday 23rd July 2018

Lewis - Wallis and Wallis

West Street Galleries, Lewis, Sussex, BN7 2NJ

Web. - wallisandwallis.co.uk

eMail - toys@wallisandwallis.co.uk

Tel. - 01273 480 208

Fax. - 01273 476 562

General Toy Sale

Tuesday 24th July 2018

Newbury - Special Auction Services (SAS)

81 Greenham Business Park, Newbury, West Berkshire, RG19 6HW

Web: www.specialauctionservices.com

eMail: mail@specialauctionservices.com

Tel: 01635 580595

Fax: 0871 714 6905

Memorabilia (second half of a split, two-day sale)

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Toy fairs are thinner on the ground this week, as the summer holidays kick-off with the break-up of the state-sector schools on Friday . . .

Sunday 22nd July 2018

Kirkby-in-Ashfield - Townsend Toy & Train Fairs (Malcolm Townsend)

Festival Hall, Kirkby-in-Ashfield, Nottinghamshire, NG17 7DJ

Web. - www.tttf.co.uk

Mob. - 07951 072 790

10:00 - 14:00hrs

Accompanied under-16's free

Free parking, refreshments

Orpington - SRP Toyfairs

Crofton Halls, Orpington, Kent, BR6 8PR

Web. - www.srptoyfairs1.co.uk

eMail: srptoys1@hotmail.co.uk

Tel. - 07739 998 012

10:00 - 14:00hrs

Tuesday 24th July 2018

Tonbridge - SRP Toyfairs (evening fair)

Angel Lane, Tonbridge, Kent, TN9 1SF

Web. - http://srptoyfairs1.co.uk/

eMail: srptoys1@hotmail.co.uk

Tel. - 07739 998 012

18:00 - 20:00hrs

Admission £1.50p, Children Free

Wednesday 25th July 2018

Burton-on-Trent - Townsend Toy & Train Fairs (Malcolm Townsend, evening fair)

The Town Hall, Burton-on-Trent,  Staffordshire, DE14 2EB

Web. - www.tttf.co.uk

Mob. - 07951 072 790

18:00 - 20:30hrs

Accompanied under-16's free

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Other Events

Saturday 21st July 2018

Brighton - Summer Toy & Model Train Show (Sussex Vintage Model Railway Collectors)

Venue - Knoyle Hall, Knoyle Road, Brigton, BN1 6RB

Web. - www.sussex-transport/svmrc

eMail - sussexvintagemrc@hotmail.com

Tel. - 01323 893661

Mob. - 07785 567251

Admission £4.00, accompanied children free

Layouts, displays, trade stands

Lunch and refreshments

Disability-access to ground floor only

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Finishing with the big one, which will probably get a second reminder/mention next week . . .

Friday 27th - Sunday 29th July 2018

London (Olympia) - London Film & Comic Convention

Web. - https://www.londonfilmandcomiccon.com/

Venue/Travel - https://www.londonfilmandcomiccon.com/index.php/2014-09-29-15-24-14/venue

Exhibitions, trade stalls, show exclusives, over 100 guest stars booked.

Note - you need to double check on tube times as I seem to recall is a funny service there weekdays v. weekends?

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If you are an event promoter/show curator/auctioneer and you want your toy, model, collectable or popular-/youth-culture type sale/exhibition/event listed here - FOR FREE - or linked to; please eMail me -

maveickatlarge[at]hotmail[dot]com, 

- stating the date/s of the event, address of event, contact details, opening/viewing times, admission pricing and any other relevant facts/details or features - parking, travel notes, disability access, availability of refreshments, event subject matter &etc.

And please mention any flyer-art or poster-/leaflet-scans but send by separate eMail, in case they go to the 'junk' folder, from where they can be recovered and marked safe, but only if I know they're there!

F is for Follow-up - Cluedo

So to closing a day of board-game posts, we looked at the newer 'standard' version of Cludo the other day, and a nice set of Simpson's playing pieces from the same game a while ago, and I picked-up a few more in recent days, so we're going to look at them next.

It's a funny thing but - in sympathy with the corporate 'web' we saw with the Buzzbee stuff yesterday -  you don't know who to credit these to, indeed; if I posted them as three posts they would end-up with different tag-lists, by dint of one being Waddington's, one Parker and one; Hasbro-Parker.

I will find the old posts and tag them 'Cludo' (if I haven't already) as the more examples that appear, of the more popular games with figures, the more complicated the picture will be with all of them.

Technically they are all Hasbro now, but in the past, the two 'big boys' (Waddington's and Parker) shared licenses of each other's games, and bought-up all the smaller guys, one by one, leaving everything in the Hasbro stable!

This was going to be three images, but I didn't think I'd have enough blurb to justify them, in fact I could have dropped them into the above waffle, but hay-ho! Three games purchased for a grand total of less than a fiver, three charity shops in three towns, but to be honest, car boot sales give-up this kind of thing for similar small beer!

Top is a late 1970's or early 1980's version of the standard game, the cards still have the original artwork, and when I was a kid the 'player' looked the same. Obviously; without the little faces perched on top - jut a small blob finial.

Middle left is the box for a set the setting for which is a sort of febrile Hollywood/Bel Air type community. The other set is an electronic one which introduces four new playing figures (we'll look at in a mo') but doesn't have the six traditional characters, who remain only cards, with two additional ner-do-wells; Rusty the gardener and Mrs. Meadow-Brook. Character artwork for the later conforms to the Hasbro era.

The Players of the 'Discover The Secrets' version are lightly coloured clear plastic, on full-coloured bases, very boring, but there are nine murder weapons instead of the common six, one of which is a celeb' award . . . some divine justice in there I feel!

Below is the set I remember with its little piece of yellow 'rope' and  'Habitat' design 'mini-figs', not that I'm suggesting Habitat actually had a hand in designing them, just that they are part of the whole post-modernist, melamine, Perspex, 2001 A Space Odyssey furniture, geometric wallpaper era of 'form & function'al design.

Similar playing pieces were found in most games of the era; Go!, Ludo, Hama . . . and with the Campaign ones having little Napoleonic headdresses instead of a ball! Hopefully with this new move away from plastics we will go back to turned wooden tops or upside down golf-tees? I rather like wooden toys, they are very tactile and age with grace.

The electronic set has only four player figures and they aren't the murders, they are to help find the one among eight who is actually guilty, as I bought the set elsewhere and dumped the non-useful contents in the bin after photographing the box, I can't even tell you how many murder weapons there were as they were also only cards, and went to land-fill!

I will remove them from the little-click-button bases at some point, but having investigated the task, it will require a very sharp chisel and a clamp . . . and the right angle for a swift, sure strike with a hammer!

Each of the four seems to equate vaguely to one of the common characters, with Prince Azure being the Colonel Mustard, Lord Gray - Professor Plum, and the two ladies Peach for Scarlett and Lavender for Peacock, I don't think this is accidental, I suspect the game started life quite differently to the final published version,

A lot of these spin-offs are pale, often gimmicky, shadows of the tried and tested originals, and I think this was tweaked until it worked, in the course of which two players were lost as pieces, four renamed and the rest added-tp as a card set?

Ah, the 'meat & two veg' of Cludo . . . the guns and knives! Posed with the Roman Gladius and 'pepperpot' we looked at last time are a silenced automatic (Walther PPK?!!) and vicious-looking kitchen knife from Hollywood along with the more traditional 'representative' pistol and letter-opener of the standard set.

As I mentioned lest time, there is still the interim set of grey figures on coloured bases from the 1990's to come, and I will look out others. There's a Junior Cludo version (no murder, just cake theft - and 'grown-up's doing the stealing at that!) which seems to have figural pieces and which I nearly got the other day - but I already had the Buck Rogers under me'arm!

R is for Reaper Rock Chick!

The same day I encountered the Buck Rogers set, I was already heading for the Games Shop in Aldershot which - many years ago - was the HQ of Esdevium Games (now Asmodee) hoping for another extension pack for my Zombies!!! (which I've never played), but they didn't have any, or - at least - they only had a cards-only extension pack.

Consequently, looking around for a consolation-purchase, and by now having the huge TSR box under one arm and my portfolio and 1000 4x5½ click-shut bags in the other hand, I plumped for this guitar-wielding punk-rock, tank-girl, chick-babe!

To be honest; when I got it home and out of the visually quite-distorting blister, I wasn't terribly impressed by the quality of the sculpt, which I would call a bit blurred or 'sandy', I've seen better 3D prints. I hope she will paint-up a bit better one day with a flash-trim and some washes?

It says it's 20% recycled plastic which is a good thing and I don't think that's the problem, I just feel it's a very poorly-defined/finished casting.

Meanwhile Brian was ID'ing his own diver from the other-day's post, with a much cleaner looking casting! Line-branded to Chronoscope, I think it also covers nicely for the worlds of Messrs Wells, H. G.  and Verne, Jules!

However  . . . unpacking for the day, photographing and sorting (of six colours, 360-odd times) faced a two-hour-plus hiatus, due - I'm sure - to Blog-visitor Jah's encouragement of shear nehkid idleness in my ancillary-staff!

Boss . . . can you move the sun an inch to the left? It's right in my eyes!

That's better . . .

. . . zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!

F is for Follow-up - Buck Rogers in the 25th Century

This post has a history almost as complicated as the bear's one yesterday, in that I noticed the main trope of the post a few days after the last post on the subject, which was a bit of a gap-filler itself, as I was working with a small sample. So I rounded up some new shots, but given how many there were in the previous effort, there was little else I could do with what I had.

Equally- the shots I took of the trope (the backs of the comics) were frankly kwarch, so at some point I borrowed them, scanned them, added then to the rather piss-pot poor folder's contents and forgot about them for a while. Then the other day I managed to pick a near-mint set up for £1.50p and it was all back-on!

So, the 'trope' of the post: The pre-production shots used by TSR for advertising the game contain some stuff which never made it to the game, That - in itself - is not uncommon, relying on catalogues for information is always fraught with the danger that the thing never saw the light of day, but I thought it would be fun to compare, in the hope that people might recognise one or two of the interlopers?

On the left is the earlier advert for the game, the later on the right, now I forgot to note the dates of the magazines, but they were only about four-months apart, and from 1988. Both were UK issues of 'American Comics'; DC's Superman I think?

The one on the left has several features not found in the final set, while the one on the right (also advertising Dragon Lance - Graham A . . . post coming soon now; thank you!) is accurate to the published sets, except in the colours of the six armies.

The most obvious anomaly is this chap, who stands in for the 'Gennies' (which I think should be pronounced Jean'eeze, rather than Jenny's), genetic engineered humans, larger than the standard humans.

Now, the question is - does anyone recognise the sculpt? There are that many of them in the publicity shot it seems they must have been either commercially available (probably whitemetal) stop-gaps for the PR studios photographer to work with, or - possibly - taken/borrowed from another boardgame, whether TSR or not?

They appear to be vaguely bird- or animal-faced (respirator?), with a 'blaster' held high in the right hand and the left holding a tapered shield. Do you recognise them, have you got some?

The figures eventually issued are the upper row of the lower shot here, firing two blasters back 'over their shoulder' as it were. I've also done an Airfix comparison, and you can see how the gold 'character' sculpts seem to have a hierarchy, with Buck and Black Barney larger (equal to the Gennies), Ardala and Doc Huer an intermediate size while Wilma and Killer Kane are as small as the human 'Troopers'.

The same conundrum is to be found in the space fleets, where the transports (left) are correct in the press-release image as for the game (as the Troopers were), but the other two craft are very different.

The 'Battler' (middle) is represented by something looking more like the Triang/LP 'Supply Force Mercury' married to the wings of an SR71 Blackbird! It's replacement in the actual game having more in common with a Klingon 'Bird of Pray'.

The fighter (right) too, varies between the image and the set, but by not so much, the issue one being similar to a Cutlass, the artwork using a sharper dart shape which looks familiar and may be from another game?

A shot with upper and lower surfaces and all colours, the transports look a bit like intergalactic ocean liners with their wide deck and lines of port-holes.

The factories are hardly changed, maybe the top right-hand corner tweaked/simplified to help the mould-release process. But the 'Satellite' is completely different with the PR model being more of a land-based radio-dish, while the game gets little killer-stations with a bloody-great ray-gun mounted on them.

As an aside; if you have a Galoob Micro Machine Star Wars collection, these satellites with their orange-segment, surface-detailing will make perfect heavy-machineguns for Snow Troopers on Hoth, matching the larger sphere-enclosed accessories that came with a couple of those sets, or the Action Fleet equivalents.

While the second set of magazine adverts had the correct set's artwork, the box itself gets the incorrect artwork from the pre-production publicity.

I have studied both sets of artwork, and as far as I can tell, the gold characters are in the correct sizes and poses, but there may be slight differences suggesting they were using masters or other production-phase sculpts, rather than the final issue mouldings, it's hard to tell.

And colours of all armies in both sets of artwork are different from the final production choice, the pale blue being closes in both pictures.

Finally; the near mint set that came in the other day had three damaged figures, two 'shot-shot' mouldings, caused by either the mould or the resin being too cool for proper production, causing the flow to stop before the tool cavity is filled, low pressure at the injection head in another cause of the same result!

I was going to replace the three with the ones I had here loose, but noticed that while the bases on all the figures in the set are smooth, the odds'n'sods are all marked with a reversed seven; so it would appear there are at least two tranches?

I have a set in storage, not quite complete and all the cards 'punched', but the box is better than the new one; I hope that between the two, I will cobble-together a really good one.

News, Views Etc . . . or - C is for 'Cos . . . You're sick of Bears!

A quick update on the Khaki Infantry page, following his contributions the other week, Chris Smith kindly sent a follow-up group shot of the FG Taylor's in white plastic . . .

. . . and an even more interesting head-swap pair; more on which with the images on that page. I was in half-a-mind to 'call them out' as Trojan's - still to be identified - Parachute Battalion, but for now I have placed them in the Unknown section, they also cross-refer to Rocco's sculpts?

[24-hours later - Paul Morehead of PW Magazine reports the red ones as being pre-Lone Star, 'Harvey' figures, without empirical stuff (you know me!) I'll leave them in the 'unknowns' for now, but add the same note there] 

U is for Ursine Urethane

Following on from this morning's stripy bumble-bear, we have not so much a box-ticker as a 'deck-clearer' with one of the Blog's occasional looks at what bear-related stuff has come in over the last year or so, and 'teddy' rather that realistic - it wouldn't do to get ones bears muddled-up!

This pair was going to be in a post called 'Cats and Bears', well; the post would probably have been called something else, but the folder was C&B as they all came together in a 50p-each type charity shop purchase. But then it turned out the cats were more interesting, so these two vinyl lumps were cast aside, while I sought something to make a 'T is for Two . . . ' post!

The sculpting is slightly different on them but the overall style is so similar they have to be from the same source and - presumably - that will be one of these hideously expensive, seemingly endless series of designer-tat sets you see in high-street jewellers - the most honest things ever said about them having been uttered by Gerald Ratner!

Also they were probably the smaller lower priced, entry-level pieces in a range with larger examples and great lumps of PU 'family groups', mothers with cubs and the like? Yet vey affordable years later in a charity shop! Not 100% sure they're not supposed to be an attempt at realistic bears, but the foot-pads earned them a place in the 'teddies' box.

This catalogue shot was the other half of the T-is-for-two post, and shows a few common-enough London tourist keepsakes, probably carried by other 'names' but wholesaled through the recently folded MGL.

Similar to the soft PVC household cavalry and similar policeman we've seen here at Small Scale World in the past, but poured resin, and the key-ring artwork seems to be mocked-up Photoshop type stuff, but I'm sure they were made and distributed, and; by more than just Marshall's!

Another charity shop purchase and we were on a roll - for a bear post!

These two were a further charity shop purchase a few weeks after the previous lot, slightly bigger and from another series of over-priced baubles. Different artists/designers I suspect, but the same brand?

The one on the right came in the other day, and is shot here to size-up against the other pair.

I think he's a Clinton's Cards thing?* I'm pretty sure I've seen stationary and greeting-cards with these patchwork/patched-up bears, slowly easing-out the execrable Love Is... stuff over the last decade or so, even Snoopy-licensed stuff isn't as common as it was!

*Google says - Me to You bears . . . there's hundreds of 'em!

Finally - I can't remember where this one came from, the shots were taken on the 19th May, so it could have been in the PW Show Plunder (Peter, Brian, Trevor or purchase), several large mixed lots I got from charity shops around that time, or even Jim's box? If it was you - thanks!

It's similar to the little blow-moulded novelty bears we've also seen here before, usually flocked, but this one is a solid-moulded, polyethylene lump and I don't know if it should be flocked. It is - equally - similar to the 'baby shower' bear we saw here too, so may be something like that, in which case the flock is ruled-out by the Pink & Blue rule!

Bee is for Bumble Bear!

There was a fad among the poured, painted-metal branch of the hobby a few years ago (I say 'a few', it's more like fifteen to twenty years ago, I keep forgetting how old I'm getting and how quickly!) for vignettes, issued around Christmas time, involving a child or two with a set of teeny-weeny, tiny toy soldiers they had found under the tree, that trope - for toys of toys with toys - was behind this purchase, from the struggling Poundworld Plus.

What appears to be a bit of 'Euro-clearance' from Italy, but it may have been available here earlier in somewhere like the late Toysaurus, and related to an Italian kid's TV-series La Cassa delle Api (the bee house/house of the bees), I only bought it for one item, but we'll look at the whole thing 'cos it's there!

After umming and aah'ing, I kept the three 'toys of toys', put the bee in the charity-shop pile and recycled the bed and hexagonal bin (bee comb - see?!). While the packaging and all other ephemera was in Italian - apart from an English age-restriction sticker - I would imagine some UK kids are familiar with it as the nature of the Internet and multi-channel broadcasting means most things tele-visual (or clips of them) are available somewhere, these days?

But this is what I was after! Is it a Bee Bear or a Bear Bee? A Teddy-bee? It can't be a Honey-bear, I know what they look like - I'm not stupid! It's too cool for nursery-school (about my level!), it's a Bumble Bear!

There's a mini bi-plane and a mini locomotive too, and you'll know from past posts that I am slowly amassing side-collections of both, but the bear is the best! The Bee; 'Buzzbee', has a fold-down hook so he can do a bit of zip-wire action, along a cable in one of the bigger play-sets.

Some of the other sets available at the time (2014); I've seen no evidence of them being part of this import tranche, and with none of them having anything like a stripy bear, I'm not concerned, although the little ladybird looks fun.

The problem with a globalised toy market is trying to make sense of who (or to whom) the toy can actually be attributed for the purpose of archiving the post after Blog-publishing, this appears to be manufactured (in China by an unnamed contract manufacturer) for Mookie Toys, on behalf of Space Enterprises licensed or licensing from/to Hive Enterprises (the TV company?), distributed (in Italy?) by Nice Group in collaboration with Junior Distribution who may (or may not) be responsible for it's turning up in the UK on Poundworld Plus's shelves!

I will archive it under Mookie and Space with a cross-reference (eventually on the A-Z Blogs) to Hive!

Of course it's all childish, but if I gave you nothing but wall-to-wall Marx, Cherilea and Airfix you'd soon get bored . . . and it was a quid, you know . . . a quid, why would you walk past it - it's got a 20mm bear in it . . . with stripes!

B is for Brucey Bonus - More Phidal!

A few recent shelfies of Phidal stuff in TKMaxx I wouldn't bother with if I found them in a charity shop or at a car boot sale, and a few odds I think are also Phidal.

We saw a quite nice My Little Pony set as a shelfie from Brian, which appeared to have stuff likely to prove useful to fantasy war-gamers or role-players, I suspect this set's contents are more chunky, cartoony figurines.

The other three are run-of-the-mill licensed stuff, likely to be larger animals, small trains and a mix of figures and sub-scale vehicles, I didn't study the backs of the tomes; where those clues lye!

Other probable Fidal's, the Disney Infinity character I'm now sur of (haven't confirmed the Minions though), likewise the superhero, who is tatty and damaged, but I think the two girls (big hands?) from Scooby Doo are early Phidal, their markings are right and I have seen a more recent Scooby set in TKMaxx, so Phidal obviously carry the licence?

F is for Fluffy the Feline

It turns out that it's not just Phidal who have been issuing these interactive book/play set volumes, this is one of those others, issued by Century Books, the company - based in Torquay, Devon - was previously (and is again) known as Centum, and this was another charity shop lot, back in early June.

The pages are simpler than Phidal's, being pretty basic with a couple of rendered, low-resolution CGI kitten images on the cover - they look like they may be TV related, but I've never heard of Fluffy? But the story is actually more fully formed than the thumbnail 'captions' of most of the Phidal examples I've seen.

[Google suggests it's piggy-backing a more well known 'Fluffy the Kitten' touch & feel book?] 

The big difference is that rather than commissioning their own figures, they have taken off-the self generic items from China, which we have actually seen here at Small Scale World before twice - or at least the cats we have, the dogs are obviously taken from a sibling set.

We first saw them when Brian Berke donated a blistered set (branded to MTC) to the blog, and while I was very good and left it sealed, I then found them in a plain bulk bag (branded to Amscan) in a party shop, all this about a year ago? Two years ago? Doesn't matter, these are they!

The above shot actually adds to the overall count, as my find had several duplicates both with its own contents and with Brian's four-different sculpts, we now have a fine orange bi-colour and a stripy marmalade and black! Being 'off-the-self', none of the models equate to Fluffy's artwork!

This [unknown] dog was added by the owner of the set, has clearly had more play than the others, may have been the owners favourite and he or she may be heartbroken to find Mum's given it to charity, I should fell a heel, but I don't; as I don't know it's real history!

The other weird thing about this set is that the enclosed animals - while being nice, certainly fine for a kid and having great play value - bear little relationship to the fleshed-out story which involves a rabbit and hedgehog among other things, well not many; another cat, a dog, a puppy and a little girl!

Fluffy snuggles-up with the rabbit for a happy ending! All the cats I've ever known have found the happier-ending involving rabbit was as a meal . . . except George P's cat, which used be chased round the carefully chicken-wired garden by a rabbit twice its size!

A couple of fuzzy shelfies I took in TKMaxx of another issuer of these sets, this one from Igloobooks has four figures and a cartoon cat and dog, TV related, large scale - shelfies are all I'll ever need to ID them in loose lots, the people will likely go back-out to charity if they turn-up.

Igloobooks and Century Publishing; two new tags in one post, rare these days!