M is for Multiple Branding

We seem to have a post or two like this every Rack Toy Month, not so much out of design, more by accident, but they do serve to illustrate how these things are never as simple as even I might make them seem sometimes, and definitely more complicated that some people like to make them out to be as they make it up as they go along!

So this is a right minestrone of a Curate's egg; the figures are definitely Wing Lung, the packaging carries branding for Knight and Gausini, import details for Fancy It Agencies and there was probably another agency (packer/shipper in Hong Kong/China) bringing the contracts together?

I thought Knight has been seen here before, but they haven't (there is another one coming), Gausini seems or sounds Italian, but now redirects to Dteinei which also sounds Italian but has Chinese spellings and seems to be Canadian? Fancy It will be the bone fide UK-importer, and the contents could be bought-in from several sources of which one is definitely Wing Lung.

The contents are run-of-the-mill stuff and with the exception of the known Wing Lung figures, nothing more than generic fare, stuffed in a toob with a cord carry-handle which dates them to the 1990's/2010's . . . not that such toys aren't still around, they are! Just that that's how long they've been in the collection!

The toob is packed out with two vac-formed end-cups; another recent practice, while the rest of the contents are second or third generation copies of old 1970's products found in one version or another in many rack-toy play-sets.

The known Wing Lung portion of the contents (and everything in the previous image may also be Wing Lung's output?) consists of a small number of copies of the Matchbox US and German WWII figures (and a couple of Brit's) in the 40mm size, going quite well with the Ideal radar trailer - bottom right.

T is for Two - Novelty Vehicular Thingies!

Just a quickie, but as I was sorting stuff to put back into storage I was shooting all sorts of old friends and things I'd forgotten I had, and batch throwing them on Picasa against the possibility of being stuck somewhere in the near future, possibly for months, house-hunting, while everything is in the said storage; these are two of the things I'd totally forgotten being the owner of, and, while 'only' novelties, they are both quite cool from a toy soldier perspective!

We get used to seeing the Award, Grace or Star branded wagons - copied from European originals, typically Timpo or Britains - on feebleBay from time to time, but how about a money-box!

Imported by a D.A.S. of London in an otherwise un-branded/generic packaging. I think this is (or was) quite recent, from the CE mark; 1980's or 90's maybe, I also suspect it was a charity-shop purchase, but can't actually remember where it came from or when, one of those last Birmingham shows, 2011?

She looks a tad Britains in origin, he . . . Elastolin medieval? The whole wagon (with figures) is in hard polystyrene with 'propylene wheels and horses and an 'ethylene plug to release the savings, hopefully to buy another wagon!

It would benefit from a 'paint down' from the current scheme of psychedelic puke! Obviously, painted or not, it's wholly compatible with 50-60mm war gaming or figure collections which is why it's in mine!

While this is more geared toward H0 or 00-compatible war-gaming collections, for which a coat of grey or olive-green would be the minimum requirement! No branding at all beyond the CF stock code prefix, it's a fun thing with two forms of power/locomotion.

Verging on 'shelf' or 'big-box' toy rather than rack-toy, it would have been rack toy budgeted I suspect and it's possibly a bit earlier than the wagon above - late 1970's? It may - of course - have been an overpriced element of the Hoverspeed gift-shop/duty-free exercise? I well remember the piles of Airfix ferry models at the Purser's window of the Enterprise Spirit class ferries we used to get - now a much sought-after kit!

A pair of batteries in the body drive a vibrating mechanism ("Oh Matron!") which causes the brushes to move the hovercraft (Saunders-Roe SR-N4 Mountbatten Class) across smooth or flat surfaces, while a secondary single battery-motor of a pretty standard slot-on design (dozens of toys came with them when I was a kid) will drive it round the local pond, boating lake or bath!

That's it, a couple of boxed-items, box-ticked!

News, Views Etc . . . Not Giant!

Today's Rack-Toy Month post is over on the Giant . . . or What page, clue; they're not Giant!

An overview of the gold-plastic Trojan Greeks who are Roman!

http://butisitgiant.blogspot.com/2021/08/golden-trojans-non-giant-gold-plastic.html

S is for Spiritual Spruce and Sacred Sequoia

Just a quickie, adding all the loose Totem Poles to their tub last night it struck me they were mostly from Rack Toys and against my one day doing them all again properly (because - as I've probably already bored you with - the old post can't be edited as the tag-rules changed on blogger a few years later and I can't save changes without deleting a bunch of the tags!), we might as well get them on the Totem Pole tag, here, for now!

I think we've probably seen all of them (or versions of them before) and both Chris and Peter can be thanked for some of these I think, along with some deliberate purcheses by yours truly and a Charity Shop one or two?

Of particular interest is that the marked-Comansi one (PVC, forth from the left blue-on-red giving a purplish look) is smaller than the polystyrene China-made copy (2nd from left, red, white & blue), this is because pantographing can go either way, and those who tell you it always makes smaller copies don't understand the tech'! The silver one is near-flat and the Britains Hong Kong one is missing a base but was in the bag so got in the shot!

The current rack-toy one on the left is the biggest, with copies of Britains Herald and Timpo featuring, along with a grey version of the previously seen brown one from CTS or BMC - can't remember! The other brown one is also a copy of a European original I think, but again I can't remember and haven't the time to look it up [minutes later - Marx re-issue, it's on the old posts!] . . . that's it; Totem Poles . . . again!

W is for Who Knew! 54mm . . . Giant?

Oh yes-indeedie, ladies and gentlemen! Not only that, but it's not that rare and I've seen several since I picked-up mine! Well known for their diminutive HO-compatible figure sets, the Rosenberg's Giant Plastics Corporation of New York also imported at least one set with a decent'ish 54mm/1:32^nd scale figure of an astronaut!

Fly Time for a dollar . . . reduced for quick-sale to 69-cents! And another of the ones I've seen was similarly reduced so it was a 'batch thing'. You get a bunch of 'summer activity' toys (as this stuff is not appreciated, by parents, in-doors!), including two gliders, two 'sycamore' propeller novelties and a parachute toy of a blue 'space capsule', within which you can secrete the figure.

The twisted steel bar is the launcher for the propellers, the small red flicky-bar is for the gliders and the larger red handle is for the capsule.

It took me a while to work out he went in the capsule, as I thought he WAS the 'parachute toy' as a space-parachtist - there are several out there, and that while he could be used as such though the loops formed by his arms, the artwork suggested that's his flying pose or something if you pretended he has a back-pack, or maybe he wass supposed to fall out of the capsule at apogee and fall back?

Anyway, whatever the truth (there's no instructions on the reverse of the card), he has a plug-in back-pack and some minimal paint and seems to be a unique pose?

These ex-MPC figures turn-up from time to time, the gold paint, poor detail and lack of originality suggest they are nothing to do with the Giant sets, but they may well be, or from similar '2nd generation' knock-off sets? I've seen two or three different poses now, and both the white plastic and black boots are/can be obvious similarities/coincidences?

Despite what some say, Giant were never manufacturers, being only 'jobbers', and as a result we can find the same stuff in other sets, here the capsule, parachute and figure are marked-up to a M. Shimmel Sons Incorporated (MSS) also of New York, and it has instructions! Which explain exactly how you string him up - as a parachutist - set him in the capsule in a specific way and then launch the capsule, so he does parachute back to earth, while the capsule crashes into the ground, momentarily forgotten!

Giant; isn't it . . . or not . . . as the case may be!

I is for Isn't it Always the Way!

I've just added an image to the bottom of the Zulu Follow-up post, it's explained there!

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2021/08/f-is-for-follow-up-native-american-zulus.html

B is for Britains' Mini-Clones!

For such a  relatively short-lived and unsuccessful range as the Britains Mini-Sets, it is rather amazing that there are not one generation of copies but two!

These came in with a mixed lot of figures from Greece just in time for rack-toy month; very crude copies of the Britains Mini-Set US GI's with new, integral bases - I think the standing-firer's base is a truncated 'short shot' moulding, not the intended extent of the design. And - sorry; I still haven't learnt about red backgrounds, especially with tangerine figures!

There's an Indian too! I wonder how much of the range was copied and why . . . die-cast toy vehicle accessories . . . not an Indian surely? Sweet or candy premiums, 'Lucky-Bags'? Ice cream . . . something like that, and likely to be Greek production rather than Hong Kong? The clones are polyethylene against the PVC of the originals and slightly below the donor's 40mm.

I live to collect this stuff!

A is for Ackerman

I bought the first two of these four sets (both contract manufactured by Pioneer) from the same shop at different times, when passing, but they had both spent some time in direct sunlight so suffer bleaching on the faces, I've tried to adjust the colour in Picasa but with limited success! The card backs, however, are true colour.

The first is the nicer play-value wise, if you consider three simplified sandbag walls an improvement over none! And you'll recognise the 'airport fire tender' VAB with twin foam-generators and 6x6 truck from the big overview I did on these back in RTM 2017, which was when it became clear how many of these cheapie die-casts are out of Pioneer's factory/ies.

Again we've seen various paint-schemes on the Hummer and like the previous set this is branded to Ackerman Group here in the UK (previously seen importing Supreme output) but will have been other brands or brand marks (phantom brands) elsewhere, such as Realtoy - all three of these models are to be seen in their sets.

A few more shots, again (thinking back over past musings on this subject) the little walls are a useful clue (like the street furniture) as to who was being supplied by Pioneer and who was ripping them off!

The 6x6 truck has a less common short tilt, no troop-carrier this one; cargo-carrying in inclement weather! The Hummer's markings have it looking a bit Chinese . . . have they copied it? Oh yes! The Dongfeng EQ2050!

Another set which I shot as one before breaking them down into the thematic tubs this stuff goes to now and probably from a minor maker rather than Pioneer; one of their copyists! King Tiger has banana-barrel; a line you probably never thought you'd read here or anywhere else!

Again, these came 'clean' from a charity shop in the last year or two and are clearly painted to type and belong together, actually quite nice; scale's not so shot-to bits, as it often is with these 'matchox' scaled sets, coming-in at around 1:90th? But an interesting choice of subjects which include a Sherman Firefly (or even an Israeli 'Super-Sherman?), late war German SWS (Schwerer Wehrmachtschlepper - Heavy Military Tractor) 3.7cm 'flak-wagon' and an American M20 scout-car.

Metro is for Play Set

Only two images, but having mentioned Pioneer in the previous posts . . . and an important post here as it fleshes-out several musings on Small Scale World over the last few years, and it does so through the medium of what the dim-witted branch of the hobby derisorily call 'plastic smalls' . . . in public, on the record!

A classic rack-toy; which, when bought (late 1990's) was probably still in the sub-pound price-bracket. An under-scale house, raised flower-bed, picket fence in three parts and store-front, all in polystyrene (or polypropylene - I've never opened it), a blow-moulded soda-dispensing coin-op' machine, a die-cast pick-up truck in the Matchbox 1-75 or Hot Wheels style and a small PVC figurine. It's notable for being aimed more specifically at little girls, rather than boys with blokey army-men or both siblings with a unisex plaything.

Actually . . . I think the 'store front' might be the raised deck of the house!

But, I hope the more observant of you will be thinking "He's shown us this before" - I haven't, or "I recognise that figure" - you should! It's the Galoob 'everyday' clothes Pink Power Ranger figurine, copied in a larger size and they've hardly changed the paint-job!

Fully marked to Pioneer, this is on one level only circumstantial evidence, but strong enough to become empirical over time if the absence of something stronger continues. I have suggested those Realtoy-Daron copies of Galoob soldiers might be connected to Pioneer and that some of the other 'might be Pioneer' figures . . . err . . . might be Pioneer! Also there's the question marks over the Zita and yesterday's Stonegalleon (and the contributed Firefighters - which I haven't forgotten about; Theo and Brian!).

Well, I suspect quite a bit of it is Pioneer, probably most of it and that those larger copies of the Galoob figures used by Dacron, Realtoy and Sky Marks ARE Pioneer as is this figure, along with the carrier deck-crews and possibly both baseings and sizes of the firefighter/mechanics and the painted/unpainted GI's seen in previous posts, even the Zita/Stonegalleon may well be Pioneer, as all the combat types/sizes/paint treatments share some poses. It even explains the one softer Realtoy firer in flat-green paint.

Contemporary with the other known makers I keep mentioning in these posts - New Ray, Smart, Soma, Supreme - as they were, if not working together, at least watching each-other very closely as they exploited the same pocket-money and window-box niches in the late 1980's and 1990's. With the lesser Wing Mau and K&M (before they adopted the Wild Republic moniker) also producing bits of this stuff. While in their larger 1:32^nd scale Street Muscle series, Pioneer produce very detailed and well made/painted driver-figures

And it's ironic that 2019's frantic Google'ing, astronaut post and firefighter/mechanic follow-ups have been confirmed by something so inconsequential which was in the collection all along! I imagine today's card was one of four-to-six with the other everyday-clothes Power Rangers similarly scaled-up.

And if this is all confusing, the Pioneer or Realtoy tags will get all the musings up on one or two pages, in reverse order of the evidence coming together - with help! I would have brought them all together and re-shot them, but they are away already! I have had some more of the smaller unpainted green ones come-in and they confirm the links tighter with pose duplications.

Oh! And it's sub-branded to the UK importer HKT with a  sticker!

E is for Enforce . . . Peace!

Ah yes, bringing freedom and democracy to the barbarian hordes, one invasion at a time!

Continuing a theme, and these are contemporaneous with the Woolbro set we saw earlier; real, proper rack toys I was picking-up in odd newsagents and general stores as I drove around Britain in the late 1990's and early 2000's in a variety of driving jobs or jobs with a lot of driving involved - one store opposite a car park, off a one-way system in either Uckfield or Hailsham (?) on the A22 gave-up a lot of interesting stuff, some of which wended it's way to PW Towers!

Casually branded to a 'Stonegalleon' with randomly positioned stickers, these are in every other respect generics, but a brand is a brand for labeling purposes, and I thought we'd seen my single loose example here as Stonegalleon before, but I only mentioned him in passing, so this is the confirmation!

Simple polyethylene 'readymade' and die-cast AFV's, polystyrene traffic signs and a PVC figure each, they were probably around .99p each or £1.50 at a stretch?

Similar to the named stuff from Realtoy, Smart and Supreme, and the bits I suspect to have originated from Pioneer, the figures are around 45/50mm and quite soft, and the SAM-launcher chap is referencing the Galoob-Realtoy pose. I don't think these are Pioneer production, but copying it; the camouflage is simpler that my green (believed to be Pioneer) one or the Zita imports, and they are a tad smaller, but not as small as the other Pioneer line.

The LAV-alike (bottom corner of left-hand set) is poor, while the 'technicals' are cheapo die-casts, but this Marder MICV is all-plastic and probably a poor copy of the - now quite venerable - Roco-Minitanks model? That's it . . . more peacekeepers . . . enforcing!

P is for Plastic Peacekeepers

In that weird, twilight between the end of the cold-war and today's chaotic mess, which is seriously beginning to look like the end of humanity as a viable hope for the rest of the universe to root for, there was; that period where 'The End of History' had been declared, a feeling of hope for the future!

'Camp David' was - itself - almost history, Mandela was out, Kuwait was liberated (for its despotic rulers to continue treating their women, nomads, LGBTQ's and guest-workers like shit) and former Soviet troops stood near if not actually next to NATO forces in the former Yugoslavia, as [shaky] allies, so, with no global war on the horizon (China just made toys and stuff!), a lot of these rack-toy, war-toys, re-badged to the 'new world order' by shoving a 'Peacekeeper' into the set-title!

Joining the collection sometime in the 1990's, this was one of the last toys I have branded to Woolbro, who I believe are still going, but are now specialising in auto-paints and such-like, rather than the general/household goods - including toys -  they have done for several (many) decades.

An oversized and rather juvenile jet-aeroplane and some Schwimmwagen-limousine hybrid (both with pull-back motors) are no better than the Military Train stuff this post is meant to be helping bury, won't be looked at in detail . . . or again today!

The figures, in the 25/28mm bracket are interesting for being not only the usual mix of Airfix (3 poses) and Matchbox (2) clones, but having a lone copy of the Esci-ERTL Japanese charging figure, who was appearing - at around the same time - in 50-mil with Hing Fat sets.

A row of smaller scenics have a lot in common with sets from Kentoy, New Ray and Supreme which were around at the same time, although similar, they do have differences and maybe one day I'll do a detailed comparison of the subtle changes in base type or overall dimensions, but right now I can't be arsed!

Among the larger scenics are some Airfix 'Forward Command Post' cloned traffic-barriers, a copy of the Smart Toys micro-tent and a rather useful bridge for war gamers with slightly Asian design-lines about it; WWII Burma or Vietnam/Laos, although painted up would look equally at home with Napoleon's troops crossing the Berezina or even in an ACW war game . . . "Doc' - Can you help me live a little more? I expect good news".

RTM is for Really Tat Miniatures

This is so bad I'm posting it now so I can hopefully bury it with something better tomorrow morning! This is not even from the 'We buy this so you don't have to' department, as A) it must be vintage now, it's 12-years if not 20 in some kind of storage/hidden from everyday view and B) I really can't remember how or why it came into the collection, but it's here and I do say [hopefully] from time-to-time "Everything will appear here in the end", so it has to have a place!

Totally generic, the sort of thing you find in large open-air markets from dodgy stall-holder geezers who say they'll be here again next week and are never seen again and who purchase their stock from equally dodgy wholesale geezers in old railway arches!

It doesn't get any better when you get it out of the box and set it up! But . . . it IS a military train and you don't see them every day huh? AND . . . It doesn't get any worse when you get it out of the box and set it up! From the technicolour track I'm guessing a civilian version of the set exists - batteries are long dead!

As I got this image up just now to work the blurb I had a de ja vue that someone will send me similar shots of their better one (more accessories?) bought recently! Weird? No - I'm not telling you who, 'cos if it happens that will be too spooky!

All three loads are screwed to the flat-cars (Force Chariots!) and gauge is best described as O-to-G! If you're five and it's a wet weekend this might be fun . . . with some dinosaurs, Kinder Egg superheroes and a pencil-top Panda Bear!

CMV is for Coincidental Miniature Victory!

Yesterday's post (on possible Zulu Warriors) was cobbled together at quite short notice, but ties in nicely with this post, as it's more American Indians, also Britains' copies, also a make we've spent time and treasure on here at Small Scale World, and when I say 'we', both Chris and Brain have contributed to the growing canon of CMV here.

Picked this up a while ago, it's a CMV-marked, header-carded, bottle-bagged, rack-toy, the best thing to kick-off Rack Toy Month proper! It is also marked-up to GiG, who I have mentioned before, but only recently learned were a co-operative importer for a group of smaller Italian retailers, presumably in competition with the larger wholesaler, Baravelli - Barrelbelly to followers of the Pennsylvania branch of the hobby, I think!

You get a the whole Britains Herald camp set, but . . . in hard, glueable styrene! I use the exclamation mark not in my usual jocular or over-excited fashion, but because, not only have previous CMV finds here been in soft polyethylene, but styrene doesn't often last in one piece for the time these have been around (late 1960's/early 1970's?), which may explain why I've not even got broken samples in the collection?

Marking varies with the figures marked either CMV or MV with what looks to be the same 1005 code and a Hong Kong (the seated Chief is further-marked 'D'), the fire marked Hong Kong only and the Totem Pole marked CMV, 1187 and with a remnant of Kong, which ties-in with the lackadaisical marking of the khaki infantry seen here previously!

The Teepee/Tipi is the best, as it's an improvement on the semi-flat squished original being an all-round, more realistic design, with a very common 'made in Hong Kong' marking inside the tent. Another point of interest is that the totem-pole is a hollow 'straw' moulding.

So, a nice find but it raises all sorts of queries about the greater output of CMV, how much might have been in brittle 'styrene, are there 'ethylene versions of these and so on? Questions, questions! But one clue to the answers is the totem pole Chris Smith donated to the Blog a while ago, which IS soft 'ethylene, but, has had the top closed-up.

F is for Follow-Up - Native American Zulus!

Well, it is the first day of Rack Toy Month and while I will try to keep up the current output, I have had a lazy week on emptying a house, so at some point I must concentrate more on real life and trying to find the deeds in a pile of paperwork which if stacked A4 would be over eight-feet tall!

While I was preparing the article we saw the other day (three posts down the page) Chris Smith was A) taking delivery of more figures (and a carded set!) and B) putting his thinking cap on, which resulted in a hypothesis I think has wings, and a quick trip into the attic this morning to see if I could add anything, which I could, but not much!

So, the smaller set of clones now have a 'set' set - if you know what I mean. Chris was worried about the title, but I think - within the context of the time - it's OK to see, I was worried, when he first mentioned it, that it might include the other n-word, I've seen children's annuals from the 1920's which contain appallingly racist stuff, so Negro Fighters is pretty tame for what was a rack-toy which may date back to the late 1950's?

It can be taken as offensive though, Wikipedia says - "In the English language, negro is a term historically used to denote persons considered to be of Black African heritage. The term can be construed as offensive, inoffensive, or completely neutral, largely depending on the region or country where it is used. It has various equivalents in other languages of Europe." so is presented here within its historical context and for research purposes only, neither the author nor the contributor condone it's everyday use. In Spanish it is the word for black.

A close-up of the really quite charming artwork and a shot of the figures in situ; note we now see/have the crouching guy in the smaller set, which takes the pose count to seven for both sized sets or 22 to find for a one of each with the originals, still considerably more with plastic and paint variations.

But why are we also looking at two Native Americans (top left)? I'll let Chris tell it: "By now you will have spotted the two figures top left in [the] photo 1 and be wondering why they are included. I had had that Indian in brown a couple of times in mixed lots and always put him in with Wild West lots of early Hong Kong copies of British figures for resale. Then when I got the two black larger version warriors there was that Indian in black as well, on checking, the base mark is the same as the warriors and the paint for both the black and brown versions . . . So my theory is that this Indian pose was the 8^th pose, what do you think? Hard to prove until a bag/boxed set turns up."

I think he's right! And it was 'off to the attic' to see if I could find any as I had an idea I might have one somewhere? First stop was the Unknown Wild West Box 2, which is not supposed to have Britains' poses in it, but does if they are part of a mixed-origins set or 'lot'. I found two in a smallish sample, obviously I've only been collecting the larger scales for twelve or so years, but I still managed to find two (marked with asterisks).

However . . . neither quite fitted the bill! One is much smaller and unmarked the other has a faint 'made in Hong Kong' mark in a different font and a bunch of likewise -marked Wild West mates, so it was back to the drawing board - or attic! Note that both have their Britains feather-headdress reproduced.

Turning to a temporary box which got half-emptied in the course of this morning's antics as all the swoppet-copies were 'swapped-out' to a new box with only swoppets in! I managed to find one in a bag by himself!

This is he, and he's also from the larger Zulu type, going by the base mark, the point to note is that there is a definite attempt to created a more African style top-knot instead of the American's headdress, not quite the full quoit, but aiming there?

Chris's pair, one black, one brown, no matching Wild West, it all adds up to an eighth figure / ninth-pose in this range of originals and clones! And while he's right that it will take the finding of a set to confirm, its absence from the obvious set; the Past The Post set seen here, helps firm-up my own theory vis-à-vis that being the eventual/likely brand for the larger set of 'Zulus'.

Chris's are also both from the larger set, so two paces forward, one pace back, are we looking for the same figure in the smaller set and could it be the unmarked one from my unknowns (feathers say 'no'!) or will it, too, have the upper-surface base mark we looked at the other day?

Questions, questions!

While I had them all out I shot this chap, in the hope that flushed with these minor victories (and that carded smaller set which is a proper victory!), we might be able to find out something about this Britains 'Herald' Hong Kong copy. He has a separate knife unlike the donor, which is similar to but heavier than the Timpo knife and has something 'late Italian' about his production values, think Dulcop or all that Kinder/Giodi/CGGC stuff?

Five days later (6th August; early hours) . . . 

Literally sat there looking at me while I edited this and the previous post on the subject! He must have come-in with the other four additions, but not knowing Chris's theory, I'd sorted him out with the other Wild West and he was still waiting on the chest of drawers to go in the Wild West TBS box!