XL5 is for Firkin' Great Fireball!

So I bought myself a Christmas present last year, which I've been meaning to Blog for a while, it's missing a piece and needs a bit of work, but it was missing two pieces until Chris Smith kindly sent me the more important one!

Probably one of the best-wrapped parcels I've ever taken delivery of, and it's come from the other side of the pond, while all those pictures of piles of rain-soaked Christmas mail were in the tabloids last year, it actually arrived on 2nd February, so in the end it was a late-Christmas present, but given everything else which was going on at the time, a blessed relief from the grim realities of everyday life!

MPC Steve Zodiac's Fireball XL5 Space City playset; the box is a bit faded and the lid's crushed down the front panel, but that's how I got it for somewhere between a quarter or a tenth of what they normally go for, or less, I'm not telling you but I've seen them (good ones) over $2,000 and I only paid a fraction of that . . . phew!

The card control tower/space HQ building seems to be all there, and was buildable, but the paper ring which separates the two discs of the base tore while I was trying to put it together for this post, so I will have to reinforce it on the blank-side and do that shot another day, also the tower itself has been discoloured by miles of Sellotape (other sticky-backed plastic tapes are available), which wasn't needed and has been removed (by me) to no other detrement?

Fuel tanks, before and after cleaning; both marked "XL FUEL", and looking like some fancy holder for picnic hard-boiled eggs in a mail-order catalogue circa 1975! A use for which they are ideally suited!

The artwork shows one, split in halves, sat flat on the ground but there is a stud-and-hole joining system, so they are meant to be fully-rounds?

The mini XL1 and transporter/low-loader truck, the cab-unit having some of the lines of the old M25 'Dragon Wagon' tank-transporters or M65 'Atomic Cannon' road-train. My first piece of luck (if I hadn't already got extra fuel tanks) was getting two XL1's in the box, this may be standard (I have seen another set with two silver ones), but only one is listed in the contents?

I also got two launcher sleds, and it took me a while to work out what they are (check the box-lid!), I still haven't worked out exactly how they work, but suspect it includes at least one elastic band of the heavier type? I only have one of the slip-in bars however, and they are clearly important! In addition to the sliding-bar, there is a swinging arm which folds/unfolds under the sled and if anyone can furnish me with a scan of the instructions I'd be very grateful.

I suspect the folding arm [folded under] is somehow attached to the sliding arm and fires at the end of the ramp (below), but it may be the other way round and it starts folded-up, then the sudden folding-under releases the slide to launch? Because I sent some of these shots to other people in the hope of ID's, I included the blue bit, but it's job became clear . . .

. . . once I had studied the mini interceptor-satellite launcher. Which is a dressed-up version of a common toy of the era, you could find micro-versions in gum-balls, simple versions were given away on comic-books and there were fancy space-pistols which fired the same discs.

The one item I am still missing for certain (beyond elastic launch consumables!) is a three-stage rocket (Ed Berg at 'Toys & Stuff' Blogged them here) for the red tower, and I will have to look out for a loose one going unloved in a mixed-lot of cheapie-shite sometime!

Space car, before and after cleaning; the whole set was pretty grimy, which was a second factor (after the tatty box) in its low BIN amount, but two minutes in the sink brought everything back to 'made yesterday', at which point all the red stuff became bloody-hard to photograph! The two figures in the next image can be used with this car.

Venus on her Jetmobile, Steve (coutesy of Chris Smith) is still waiting here at home to be reunited with his, it having gone to the storage unit a while ago, they should have matching ariels, I used dressmakers pins, but will try making some from colour matched-runner one day. I saw a couple of complete ones on the same stall the Clifford space set came from, at September's Sandown Park toy fair, but they were silly-money!

Also a comparison with one of the smaller pair of Jetmobile's stowed in the front section of Fireball XL5 itself.

Which - the front section - is called Firball Junior! And this is he, well; I don't think Fireball is a terribly feminine name? Compared to the two red plastic XL1's (and the TV originals) scale is all over the place with the main component, or 'star' of the set, due in no small part to the facts that A) an in-scale ship would need a box at least a foot longer if not two-feet, and B) would be more prone to breakage, right across the middle!

Fireball Junior has a sliding door in the roof, and both the smaller-scale crew figures and the pair of Jetmobile's can be removed for play - presumably at the destination of flights round the garden/yard, as there are larger figures for play back at the Space City site!

You can see the third reason for a cheap purchase price is the state of the stickers and some pretty-crude painting, but the painting can be removed and/or redone, and there are options for the stickers too. Meanwhile 'Junior' has all eight fine jet-vents intact.

There is also a fold-down landing skid under the cockpit, which is a tad loose on my example, but when I strip down for paint-removal, I'll try to prize it all apart and in the rebuilding will ensure everything is as tight as it was originally.

The rest of the beast, or the 'main hull', again paint and stickers! They only painted one of the outer tail-fins? Anyway, again it can all be sorted, and it'll be the subject of a proper 'project-video' once I am settled in wherever I end up!

All the stickers are in a bag (including those seen on the machine in this post - I had a stripping session after the last shots were in the bag! There are sellers offering sets of new stickers on feebleBay, but I might try either resurrecting these with clear matt varnish (as an under-glue and over sealant), or even making my own from scans of the survivors, they are all present, but you could produce a set with mirroring if you only had one of each?

You can also see some damage to the left outer fin, but again both pieces are present and it's a simple mend I could have done for the photographs, but as the plastic will need buffing after the gloss red and yellow is removed, I might as well wait - and do it all as one project.

Finally - problem wise - the missile launchers have got so old, they fire themselves! Unlike the spring-catch versions of these (which we saw here), the MPC ones are designed to be fired by hand, so they have a longer tab at the back-end which you flick across to fire, but the polyethylene of both the tab - and a plastic tag to hold them in-place before firing - have warped with age and now slowly fail while you are trying to get the shot in focus, they just sigh-away from each other and the rocket goes off like an over-excited virgin if you know what I mean! I doubt hot-water will solve the problem in the long-term, but I will try it as part of the restoration-project.

Launch-activity on Moon 57, Solsys 12, Quadrant 9, Sector 25, but then you recognised it, didn't you? The one piece I still have to work-out fully; the launch-ramp. You can see a catch at the end of the ramp (about two inches short of the buffer-plate) and between it, the existing spring (in the box at the other end) and the two bars; one sliding and one folding, there is a mechanism for launching the diminutive XL1's to the other side of the park!

Hard to photograph in low Autumn sunshine, as if it's flying, without an assistant, but hopefully you can use you imaginations where my photo-journalistic skills have failed! It's a Big Bloody Beautiful Bastard (to quote Ozzy Man) of a toy, and by the time I've cleaned it up, fixed a few jinks and ironed the box flap; it might be worth the $2k I didn't pay for it!

Which finally brings us to the figures! A toy soldier blog ought to have a few figures from time to time! As well as the two-pairs of seated Zodiac/Venus figures in different sizes, we get six standing characters, as above (seen elsewhere before), and a handful of MPC's spacemen, I haven't bothered showing them as if you need to know what they look like, you need another hobby! Joking, I will 'box tick' them one day, but they aren't that interesting and I put them with the rest back in Feb'!

I got about 25/30-odd, of which around half were gold (brighter than the three characters above), the rest were the red, white and blue ones, except there were no white ones, but there were orange ones instead!

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Now, it happens I showed the Jetmobile with Venus on a Faceplant group back a few months, and followed up with the above picture a few weeks later, since when TJF has managed to mention them on his blog three times! Not only mention them but get some pictures from the other side of the pond, taken by someone else, on the second occasion! Three times, in less than three months . . . to my knowledge, he's never previously mentioned them . . . at all, ever!

The last time I had to respond to Stadinger's  nonsense, I suggested his behaviour (on that occasion) pointed to serious insecurities, and this, latest, is only confirmation of that, such inadequacies need professional therapy, not sycophants!

I mean I get that some Americans 'rate' these, the online prices are enough to convince, but actually they just aren't that rare, there were three or four different sets, from this big one with everything, to a smaller window box, with only a few figures and the car - I think, I could look it up, but that's not the point, the point is, he could have mentioned them at any point in the last 18-odd years, mentioning them three times after I've just shown them - it's as obvious as snow in August? "I can be him too!"

He's declared himself a legend twice, in recent years, yet publicly follows me, copies what I'm doing, trying to 'best' me, or be me? What does that make him . . . my fucking shadow, that's what! Again; the other night, trying to score points with that Avengers video-link? No one cares how many Herald there are, they are as common as cow-muck on a cow-farm! That's a dairy Hugh.

The Marx tank had nostalgia-value and the Airfix both a rarity-premium and the interest of the converted figure, so I highlighted them, in a 'bit of fun' link, it was meant to be a bit of FUN! But blinded by his insecurities he thought he'd score some Brownie-points by solemnly stating the bleeding-obvious!

He then went away and spent 24hrs researching a TV series so he could go back the next night and post more 'snippets' on a link everyone had lost interest in, because he'd already ruined it with his pompous arsery and which wasn't mean to be taken so seriously to begin with!

I don't comment on his group-posted-stuff (oh, once maybe), he should try to learn to attempt to ignore mine; he's leaving it very late in life to grow-up and get-a-grip. Sigh!

W is for Whacky Wheeled Wanderers

Picked this up the other day, relatively recent (2014) and not expensive, but possibly the best 'readymade' so far, so we will have a look at it, although while it's not a kit in the sense of Airfix or Revell's trim-and-glue offerings', it does come in pieces and includes two screws!

New Ray's window-boxed Space Adventure, includes the Command Module and Eagle Lander (in an indeterminate scale) and a Luna Rover 'Buggy' with supporting figures in approximately 1:50 (35mm).

The bits I'm less interested in! The Command Module comes as a single piece, the Landing Module is two assemblies, both of four pieces with the screws, and after assembly, they further clip together with the two holes just visible on the box-base and two spigots on the Rescue Module - which are different sizes so everything ends-up the right way round with the two halves of the exit ladder lining-up.

This is much cooler, a die-cast model with two clip-, or slip-in plastic instruments that can be glued, but I'll leave them loose to minimise future breakages . . . albeit increasing the risk of loss! the driver however is polymer.

The final item requires me taking a new 'line-up' photograph, so soon after I last updated the Airfix page! Indeed I've added some more to that page today, but not this chap yet. The base I'm using is - I think - a wall clock backing, and possibly a home-craft kit one at that, but I don't know, that's just a guess!

The Instruction sheet has no surprises, and no whacky language or syntax, indeed it has no words of command or guidance whatsoever " . . . and they did it all with a computer-brain smaller than a Nokia's!" But does have some easy-to-follow pictures . . . bargain!

So, here we have the nearest rival (bottom right) from Realtoy (so probably/almost certainly Pioneer, or Pioneer components - the driver for sure), it too is a die-cast mazac-alloy model, with a different layout of different instruments, given the effort that's gone into making these models, would I be correct in thinking they represent different mission vehicles, or different tasked journeys within a single Apollo mission?

Above it is the Tang drinks premium from the USA, it's had a bit of damage to a chair back, but I'm not in a position to be trundling such things into surgery at the moment so mending can wait. It is almost as simple as the Airfix one, and the positioning of the boxes on the front 'plate' have you wondering if they didn't use Airfix's as a starting-point for their bigger design?

The model is all polypropylene including the identical riders, and is about 1:35th scale, it has a motor-mechanism, running through the hollow rear-axle, which consists of a loop of thread-elastic (like you get round your spring-onions or gammon-joint sometimes) which hooks over two studs on the left wheel-hub, it is then wound by holding that wheel still and winding the handle on the other side, which the elastic is also looped through, which twists it up in the tube. Let go of the wheel and off it goes, dragging the handle with it? The handle may make a motor-noise, but I can't test it until I replace the now floppy, perished thread.

Finally the small one is from Safari's tube of Nasa's stuff; 'Space Toob', and is just as simple as the K&M one we looked at here (rather small images, but they do enlarge if you click on the main picture), and is in a similar material - substitute PVC.

The other three from the side, that's it; the other three from the side, there's no more blurb in the blurb jar!

I had a couple more shots which were too good to chuck! And . . . a bit more blurb; the instruments on the Realtoy model are integral die-cast with the main-body, so more robust than New Ray's, until they're snapped-off after-which they would prove a bugger to fix!

The Hing Fat one can be seen in a bag here, while the Montaplex one (or actually a rather dreary, grey plastic BuM reissue one) will get here eventually. I still have to track-down Redbox's recent version (a small black & white finished one), and a nice foam-puzzle one I saw from Buil-d-ream at some point.

And I thought I'd put the Galoob one/s up here, but I can't find the post, so I may not have (just thought about it with vivid mental imagery!), so i'll rectify that when I next have them to hand . . . they aren't in the drawers we saw briefly the other day, they are kept with the near in-scale Micro-Machines figures elsewhere!

I is for I'm Not Going to Embarrass Myself . . .

. . . by pretending I know anything of import about Turbans, Pagris ("pugerees"), Khullas or the wearing of Shemagh/Keffiyeh's as full headdresses! So the best thing to do is consult this page if you want the full 'gen.

We're looking at my small collection of colonial troops wearing such headresses, and hopefully I've sped-read the link sufficiently to not make any big boo-boos!

From the left; A Gormasa-'Soldis' reissue of the old Reamsa Spanish Moroccan legionnaire, Franco found a use for them (right wing Fascists have no principles!), and bribed them with a new mosque, among other things! They still exist, but seem to be confined to the Ceuta enclave in Morocco (sort of like, err . . . Gibraltar, but not won in a war!), they now wear an Ottoman style Fez and the new Spanish Right don't like them as much as Franco did . . . fancy that!

Next to him is a French hollow-cast take on a British Indian Army soldier, presumably in France (WWI), and made by Xavier Raphanel (XR), the firm apparently ran between 1895-1935 (thanking the plagiarist 'GTO' for that), I really like him, his bayonet means business and could hurt! A quick Google search reveals the dark tunic is an XR invention, and he should be all-over khaki.

Then the Malleable Mouldings chap, taken from Comet/Authenticast metal moulds brought over from Comet-Gaeltec in the Republic of Ireland, there is some debate over who exactly made these soft polyethylene versions (Malleable used either a frangible phenolic or a 'styrene polymer for most of their non-metal production), but as no one seems to have a name for the person (or persons) unknown who may (or may not) have taken over the IP of Malleable, they might as well be called Malleable Mouldings until more information comes to light . . . must check my Chase files!

Finally the little chap on the end is from Swedish-African Engineers (SAE), and, like the previous figure is a Holgar Erikson sculpting. From the painting, I'm guessing a French Colonial soldier is being depicted, but I wouldn't like to say for certain what type, Moroccan Zouave, 1939'ish?

As we saw in the previous post, this chap came in a few months back, and note he is a third sculpt, a Sikh I think, with bloused-trousers and no apron/frock coat (or whatever it is, trying to pretend you know about colonial uniforms is a slippery slope!). Basic painting suggests boots not leggings, and the plastic colour could indicate Indian Air force, I don’t think it does but . . . ? Another might be/might not be Malleable Mouldings, and again in soft polyethylene.

Now I had hoped to have the Charbens-Cherilea-Crescent Indians here, but they haven't turned up? I thought they were in the 'big purchase' of 2010, but if they were they should have turned-up when I blogged the Russians a couple of years ago, and they didn't, so I must have imagined them. It's annoying as I have passed on some nice lots over the intervening years, but at some point I will have to bite the bullet and invest in decent sets of all three!

Here are three pretty scruffy Cherilea Bren-gunners who have trickled-in with mixed lots, the best is probably the middle one, and you can find them with yellow, white and pale-blue turbans (in the Sikh style?) I think, maybe a bright green too?

I do have a reasonable sample of the King's African Rifles, also Cherilea, although I need more of the OG uniform chaps (bottom left), these are pretty whacky poses, but not quite as lunatic as the UN set, I suspect the same sculptor, and he improved quickly from the UN set.

I shot another one! No paint to speak of!

I have some of the Marx marching bloke in tall fez (reissues in bright colours), but they are with all the jungle stuff as German East African's or Belgian native troops heading into the 'Heart of Darkness'! I ought to keep the Cherilea with them.

S is for Show Report - Late, Sandown, September, Contributions Etc . . .

Adrian Little over at Mercator Trading always stalls out at the Sandown Park show, and often has a bag, box, tub or tray of bits for me to look at, sometimes several! Some require shekels, some get sort of chucked at me and because they do I always try to purchase something too! He was there in September and this post covers all those sources and . . . possibly a bit more - one of the shots is a bit confusing!

The easy ones first! We saw the plastic pumps in the previous post and they might have been on Adrian's stall anyway, but the Lesney die-cast definitely was, and I shot the two by way of an instant comparison at the show, as while I have one, it's in storage and although I probably included it in the Matchbox posts back in 2012/13 (?) I can't be arsed to look for it when this shot is enough! Note the Hong Kong maker (probably Tai Sang) has changed the finials to Shell branded pumps from the Esso of Lesney.

Below them is a bunch of Mocherettes (as you must by now realise I call them), nothing rare here, but the Egyptian is useful and the AWI (indeed all the Wild West with Kinder bases) are harder to find and come in several finishes, so I may or may-not need him to build or complete a set? The larger one is a more modern Westair, and is soft whitemetal, rather than the die-cast zamac of the earlier, smaller figures.

Some interesting stuff here, the top row are - I suspect - modern'ish aftermarket/garage figures painted-up and based, but they could be older and/or rarer, I just don't recognise them and there are many whitemetal railway figures out there.

The middle row has, from the left; three Horten for Trix and Britains Lilliput, then three which I belive are Comet/Authenticast (but probably not Eriksson sculpts), an unknown who could go with either of the preceding trios, but is probably another Horten for Trix/Britains, the final four are Hornby/Dinky 'Dublo'.

The bottom row is less clear, did Lilliput have a post box, if not probably Wardie/Mastermodels? The aeroplane could be from a board game, but I suspect with the three-colour paint-job, it may be a 'toy' toy for a dolls-house playroom? The gun is from a ship-model and is likely to be a commercial barrel on a homemade carriage.

This is lovely, and I was touched Adrian had saved it for me, as I'm sure he has customers for it, it's a slip-cast bisqueFlaK or Pom-Pom gun, and probably a German Winterhilfswerke (WHW) piece, the partial mark seems to be in the DIN font, which would tie-in nicely, but just a lovely thing!

I tried to photograph these through the bag, but as you can see the images were pretty awful, so I got them out! It's obviously the tale of Hansel & Gretel, with the witch and a cat which I don't remember getting a mention, but witch = black cat (familier)!

Plaho (Plastik und Holz - plastic & wood) were a state organ of the VEB system, build on the firm of Herpat in Steinach, in East Germany, and you can see the composition ancestry in these figures, we may even have seen the Lineol (or Elastolin?) originals here at Small Scale World . . . and courtesy of Mercator Trading I think?

This is where I get confused, it's also a poor image, sorry. The bag bottom right was definitely from Adrian, but I'm not sure if the rest were, or if I bought a bag of bits at the show and sorted them down to this image, then including some of Adrian's stuff, but I'll proceed as if it was all from him!

We'll look at the better bits in a minute, although it's all pretty interesting, but now I'm making more effort to get the Giant Or What? Blog turning a little more regularly (about 12 articles in the ready queue), it will mostly be seen there, but what can you see here?

A bag of smaller farm and zoo animals, various Giant and sub-Giant copies of Knights, Romans and Wild West, a small bag of Quaker Gladiators, a bit of Marx-Blue Box 1:64th American 'HO' stuff, three Tudor Rose farm animals in 'styrene, a nice vintage 'ivorene' charm, Manurba/Tallon trucks, Spencer Smith Nappy, Montaplex medievals; all sorts!

These are both lovely; the cowboy whistle in two colours is one of only a few novelty whistles I have, of which only two others are figural I think, a lion and a . . . bird? While the Sikh sentry is a very uncommon Malleable Mouldings figure in soft polyethylene polymer, taken from an old lead-solid Holgar Eriksson sculpt.

The whistle from a couple more angles (we'll see the Sikh again soon) and some modern gaming stuff (bottom right); I think the horse might be Minifigs, the pack animals are nicer, but probably quite new?

Top left however, is of more interest, and the left-hand figure came from Adrian, the set of four were a coincidental purchase at the same show and could have been in yesterday's post, but they ended-up here! lead solids around OO-guage/23mm.

I am sure I know the name of the game, and possibly the maker, as I took notes on one at SAS Auctions, when viewing years (14 or 15) ago, but can't find the note, they are (I'm sure!!) from an Edwardian board game with a simple name like 'Spies', 'Secret Agents' or 'Private Eyes' and I favour the latter one, maybe 'Private Dicks'? No sniggering at the back.

I'm guessing these must be French bazaar things; bags of unpainted 'ethylene mouldings of earlier often French but sometimes copies of Timpo, Elastolin or Spanish figures/products from the 1970/80's? The odd thing here is that the two adult chickens and the ducklings are quite realistic, while the adult duck and chicks are quite cartoony? But a really nice, very clean sample!

While these - being also a nice sample - will need a bit of research I haven't done yet. There are several sets of these, and similar poultry, some of which are claimed to be Prior premiums, others not, there seems to be a set like these, a set with nests and a set on more elaborate foliage, with several sets on plainer flat bases, while a couple of larger raptors have no bases, just big feet!

Most are a stiff, dense 'Macau' PVC and seem to have come through Injectaplastic of Portugal, so may also 'be' Jouets Super Plastic (JSP) of France, while some seem to have been premiums for other companies such as Arena, Aurea, Azur, Bisco, or Ehrmann, but some are softer rubbery PVC. Prior don't actually seem to have handled the birds at all!

So, more work needed! But, lovely toy figures.

Many thanks to Adrian for the bits he gave me and the bits he saved for me to look, at all of which I took - at well below retail - and the bits I bought on top, all-in-all a bargain!

S is for Show Report - Late, Sandown, September, Purchases

So much stuff got put on the back-burner last year (a daft expression these days as the smaller 'simmer' rings are often the ones at the front or (in the case of the one here) to the right!), among which are several show reports, so we'll get get stuck into the new year with a bit of the old one!

First though, a note about the shows - I'm not proud of attending two shows in the autumn, and don't advocate doing so, as you know I haven't got back to posting forthcoming show news yet, and that is precisely because there is still a very real risk in putting-on or attending shows or events of any kind - I'm also penciled-in for the London Toy Fair trade show later this month too! Doh!

However, we were between Covid-variants, I wore a mask whenever I was close to anyone, went outside to remove the mask and get a bit of fresh air . . . and vape, and generally took care. Just as it was my personal 'right' to be a dick, it's each individual's right to be a dick, but not to promote dickishness in others!

We're all a bit stir-crazy now, I get that, I am too! But imagine - for a moment - if half the population of London or Southampton had decided it was their 'right' to ignore blackout-regulations in the early 1940's? Huh? It's not about OUR individual rights or perceptions, it's about the rest of our family, our friends & acquaintances and every stranger we might meet.

Now, the way the figures & stats are going-up, we'll all be looking at further measures in the next few days and I probably won't make Kensington-Olympia! But those backbench anti-regulation fans; the Covid Research Group, ex-European Research Group, ex-'Spartans' (the real Spartans would have eaten that shower of inbred-toff shits for breakfast and then ordered bacon and eggs - twice) are the equivalent of anti-blackout fans, and should be ignored, along with their friendly tabloids!

Anyway, that's what I think on the subjects! On to the toys . . .

. . . and I found two little rack-toys of the pocket-money size, a set of petrol pumps I already have loose, and some more civilian versions of the Humber-cab mini-trucks. The pumps - although in a generic pack - are almost certainly Blue Box, or at least Tai Sang (the parent)'s production as they are regularly included in the larger Blue Box sets. The mini-trucks are the type I've called 4A - with the 666 marking.

This was lovely; unmarked on the underside, but obviously an old 'Dime Store' plastic from the 1950's and probably a mould-share with a US firm, it has a little tool chest built-in with little (out of scale) tools, I suspect a spanner or wrench and maybe a drill or saw are missing, for a four-count? There's certainly room for a couple more.

The tractor-unit is from Triang Minic's range and will join a militray green one and a red example in the collection. The Daimler 'Dingo' scout car in nice for having a crew-member, while the windmill is fascinating, and might be British, despite the Hong-Kong'ishness of it's production.

I have several solid versions (which are HK piracies - and I often wondered what of?), while this - as you can see - is a stacking novelty (like this morning's Kazakh rocket!), or even a 'jig-toy' with the key-like central stem. Shot before and after cleaning, it could be early domestic production, by someone like Bell?

Bit of a story behind this chapter in the continuing LB-Lik Be story; I knew where I thought there was one of these, had known for over a decade, bought and sold by the same chap several times, always selling back to the same dealer, I last saw it with that dealer, and asked him to bring it to the show, if he could find it, and he said he's have a look.

Well, he couldn't find it, which was a disappointment, but in such cases you can then wizz round the stalls and find something else for the money . . . only I found another Clifford Toys branded Moon Explorers set (for less than I had been about to pay), so bought that! It was on a stall with some MPC XL5 stuff, but I had already got them, and shown them, although we'll be looking at them again soon!

I assume/presume/hope or guess the other four poses can be found in the same box for a 'pair' containing the whole 'set' - No27/5643B? Clifford also carried some of the Spacex sets in small scale, makes you wonder why Tri-Ang never carried these larger figures?

Half of me wonders why I bought the Tudor Rose wagon, but then the other half knows it was because it was in an usual colour-way I didn't think I had (we've seen them here before one than once, some courtesy of Michael Melnyk), it was very 'clean'; almost mint and it was cheap!

The HO gun team (not Giant) was mine, and I took it to the show after someone rang me three times in two days, getting me to promise I would do so (I think I quoted him a fiver?), only for him to not turn up, nor have I had another peep out of him as to why not! Some people are a waste of oxygen, and the older I get - the less patient with them I seem to be!

Been after these Bathing Beauties for a while, and the seller has had them in re-issue purple and green (?) or candy-pink (?) for a while, but at the September show he had this set (Marx) in a similar flesh to the originals, I think they are modern production, but they even have the chalkiness of the originals, so I'm happy enough with them!

T is "To Boldly Go . . . "

. . . forth! 2022? It too will pass!

Did I say we'd be looking at something from Kazakhstan in the future? Well, it's a year in the future now, so by Jove; let's look at it! First though, do you remember when I got a little excited about a Merit infant-toy stackable fort/palace thing?

Well, this is even better, and, looking at the images in that old post, I recon the parts will be interchangeable, if I ever get the urge to fire masonry towers or tiled-turrets into deep space!

Jovians queue-up to board their space rocket courtesy of a brand I don't recognise, but it looks like ЈПЕ as a pyramid/in a triangle, indeed it's might be ЗЦГ with the point of the triangle at the bottom? I should have photographed it but . . . red plastic, winter light, flash!

The colours of the rocket, or at least; the red and turquoise could be seen as the colours of the flag of the Soviet Socialist Republic of Kazakhstan, so while the factory may have been considered 'Soviet Russian', I suspect it was local to the now independent Kazakhstan?

The component parts, a mid-density (soft) polyethylene plastic with the wooden 'wand'! The base-plate (bottom right, red) and the top cap/cone (white, top left) are slightly tighter fits than the other parts, so that once you have finished building it, it all stays together so it can be flown about by hand!

While the Merit castle had fixed spigots top and bottom of hollow tubes, this rocket has a central core of a wooden rod or dowel - I don't know how long a dowel has to be to become a rod!

I done did a little .gif

A quick point - in hours, this was less than six days, Kazakhstan to UK . . . over Christmas! I have to wait at least two weeks to get something from New York, New Jersey or New Hampshire, at the best of times and they are direct to Heathrow, several times a day, while it's up to three weeks from Italy or Greece? Mexico? Over two months! Heathrow-sorting to Fleet sorting . . . 40-minute van-drive, Fleet sorting to my door, 3/4-minute walk. yet this, from a  late-night purchase to a 9am delivery was a few hours over the five days? I think the words we're looking for are 'quality service', from the Kazak postal services! Something ours - in the West - have lost, abandoned.

Kazakhstan is building closer economic ties with the EU (without showing a similar interest in Joining NATO) and will be watching the Ukrainian border with some alarm, Russia has no right to enslave all these neighbours, just because she had once done so, and I hope common-sense prevails . . . or Putin meets a sticky-end.

While it clearly has an order of construction (left) to make a pretty standard space rocket of the pulp book-cover variety, the components can - of course - be assembled in numerous ways, which may or may not look good, fashionable or just plain silly!

New 'best toy ever'? 

N is for Nostalgia - Christmas Bits

The last of the seasonal stuff I think, and an eclectic trio, one's been in the collection for decades, one arrived yesterday and the other pair are 'found objects' from this year's forensic crap.

This - shot earlier in the year as I was sorting stuff - is the box and contents (less the carefully removed charms) of a set we looked at here, a few years back, and as I said then, the set's vaguely titled 'Old World Series' but there's no apparent or hard-and-fast branding, it's the sort of thing Tom Smith might have been behind as contract-manufacturers/wholesalers for someone else, and is most interesting for the cross-over from bass-metal to plastics (see link).

This came yesterday, in a parcel from Kazakhstan! The contents of the parcel will make a separate post, but I thought this was charming, it's an old Soviet-era Christmas card, and apart from the Cyrillic-language of the 'Merry Xmas' (or whatever) message, is no different to similar cards available in the west, then or now.

You see, it's important to realise - as Putin masses troops on Ukraine's boarders - that away from the shit of capitalist industrialists, religious conservatives or those who would rule us, we are all the same, with the same hopes or dreams, sensibilities or sentimentalities, and while you can go-off those who get taken-in by the populists, they aren't 'our' wars, and there is enough money, right-now, on this planet, to feed, house and clothe every man, woman and child - approximately $250,000 per head.

The fact that a few dozen fuckwits are using most of it to have public ego-tripping, penis-size competitions, whether of the Putin/Bolsanaro/Trump type, or the Musk/Bezos/Branson type is immaterial - they will kill us all, while we buy their shit or vote for them!

Found these in Mum's papers! The exclamation mark is because we did get novelty combs in our Christmas stockings, several times I think, and one year we got elephants, which were styled like these (I still have mine somewhere I think?), and were the same red and blue.

Now, knowing how fair-minded Mum was, I suspect she intended to give us these the next year with colours reversed, but lost them in her chaotic filing system, as with the second pair of markers? I'll never know for sure now, sadly, but that that is what they were for - Christmas stockings - I have no doubt! I shall, at some point, pass them on to other little people, for the intended purpose.