S is for Seen Elsewhere - Sci-Fi Figures

Another in the occasional PC-clearing series of the stuff I've already shown somewhere else! Some of which will have been seen here too, but the idea is to get all new images up, or do a bit of extra box-ticking!

"For mash get Smash!", the almost immortal (if you're of a certain age) tag-line jingle that ended the humorous TV adverts' for Cadbury's instant mashed-potato powder! Technically 'Martians', they appear to be Robots (the actual Martians never being seen?), they were such a successful campaign several toys resulted, these pencil tops being possibly the most common, but a chunky Bendy exists and a Marx clockwork wind-up.

Argentine copy (pink) of the female space warrior (black) from Britains compared, the lower shot is out of focus (obviously) but the upper one was a poor choice of background, so I've put them together as I can't re-shoot at the moment, they're buried in a shipping container!

We saw these not that long ago, but I'd shot them for the Faceplant group, so here they are again! Mattel GUTS! Laser Fighters space figures, the helmets are all different, as are weapons, while equipment layout and colours also differ from figure to figure, so more a bunch of space pirates or mercenaries than an organised force!

We should have had these here too, in a show report, but I can't remember posting them, so it may still be in the queue somewhere. I did post them as shelfies from someone else's table once though - Vision von Anderen Sternen or 'Vision of Other Stars'.

Elastolin's hysterical lobster-hula-cow lady ('Venus Amazona') and 'Saurus Saturn' the turquoise space-ant eater! These were as rare as rocking-horse shit, but when the factory shut down a huge heap of them turned-up and I think everyone who wanted a set got one! I previously dubbed them Rubber-girl (catalogue No. 8304) and Dino-grinch! 8300.

I was a small-scale collector at the time but can remember loads of them on several tables at the Herne show, only to see people wanting pretty silly money for the few on show up in London! I sort of paid silly money for these, but they don't turn-up now like they did 15-odd years ago - because they are all in collections! And to be fair I didn't pay what I know some are happy to pay for all four!

The Astronaut (8310, who didn't get a name . . . Raumy?) was originally the most expensive (separate helmet?) at DM 1,50 pf. (about 30p in the 1970's?), with 1.25-each for the previous two and only ,90-pfennigs for 8302 the 'Jupiter Gorilla', or Crab-Taz the Lobster-man! And while some sources claim they were game-pieces for a board game (Perry Rodan?), they were issued in a bilingual (German French) clear carton.

Clearly though they were some kid of experiment or one-off, from Elastolin, the non-standard bases, painted different colours, singling them out as not the norm, and reputed to be sculpted by a Max Weißbrodt, they didn't take off, or didn't get the head-office support they needed, and consequently a shed-load turned-up at the end! The catalogue numbering though, suggests the line was to be expanded?

Finishing with a question-mark, anyone know who this is or what toy-line he's from? The hole in the back of his helmet and rather smoothly-finished back-pack seem to point to a missing attachment or fixing of some kind, he's nylon or polypropylene and about 54mm, I suspect he's quite modern or even relatively current? Although, he also looks a bit 1980's 'straight-to-video' post-apocalypse punky!

H is for How Much Can You Stuff in a Egg?

The last of the 'Micro' or mini-stuff for now I think, and not a particularly full sample, but fun nevertheless! Kinder have from time to time produced sets of items so small you wonder how they got under the safety radar, but then a lot of their toys include equally small components, so I guess it's all covered by the H&S caveat on the packaging!

A few of my smallest Kinders, the safari (green) is complete I think, the explorer being around 10mm, and I assume the coach must have come with something else? The pale blue bloke with binoculars is a lighthouse keeper, but I discarded the lighthouse at the time (late 1980/early 1990's), the pair are from a fuel set - see below.

That Wil West stage-coach from both sides, about the same size as the teeny capsule/Christmas cracker ones, but with ridgid moulded-in wheels . . . and giant horses!

These came out in the mid-2000's I think, and the animals are a quite good HO/OO-compatible size, being a small pony and a cow with ball-tipped 'safety-horns'! Although they are not quite in scale with the trailers, but that's more about the thickness of their bases!

I'm not sure if this is a parallel line to the previous ones (came-in about the same time), or a rival, the code-letters on the wings suggest it might be Czapp, another chocolate prize-egg issuer from . . . the former Yugoslavia? It's all in the archive and will be correct when it goes on the A-Z Blogs - a job which is still probably a year away?!

No figure/s in this one either, but plenty going-on at the local aerodrome and a couple of mini-trees to add to the jungle. A common trope with these is the stiff foldable sheet of polyethylene or nylon, which slots together and gets covered in stickers to reveal the building's role, really they'd need a bit of carefully applied heat to look good, but tend to end up looking like inflatable's!

Another common trope has been natives, of a sort of generic 'South Seas' type, and I've picked-up a few over the years, the cartoony one bottom-right was part of a set of four I think; each having a more outrageous finial to the hut's roof!

The two-part green canoe near my finger actually goes with the Disney plug-together figures.

Is he a native, a pirate or a Robinson Crusoe type? But the hootch would paint-up nicely for a WWII Japanese-held island or something in Vietnam, while the boat makes for good background scenery. It all goes in one egg!

While I will have to re-shoot this one next time I visit the 'brown water' navy! Hootch is a bit small and impressionist, but could be used as a food store in the same scenarios mentioned above, or one of those horrid POW cages from Vietnam? A few of the boatman would go well fussing-around Atlantic's Nile vessels too!

These were sent in by someone a few years ago, and while I assume they were evilBay, if they are on your site let me know and I'll take them down. I've actually tweaked the light to improve them a tad, and they are here to show the wider range of these micro-sets, and also that you get reverse colour-ways of each so the tool moulds them all in one colour and then they are split, probably automatically by a/the runner-guillotine?

I have the Arab somewhere (been on the blog I think, or the Airfix Blog?), and guess the coach went with another Wild West set? You can also see the reverse of my fuel pair in grey. These micro-toys (and there have been others) can provide useful stuff for 20mm, 15mm or 10mm war gaming, while some of the vehicles will happily slide into 1:300 micro-armour games with a bit of paint.

H is for How They Come In - Chris - December '21 - 2 of 2

So continuing from where we left off last night . . .

Mixed small-scale horses and Wild West stuff around the 30-40mm rage, three Minimodels Indians up top, they've lost their lances, but even when new they were often missing, damaged or short-shot, so one day maybe a small conversion/modelling project there?

Down the right-hand side we have horses from Kinder, Lledo and the Revell/Lifelike et al stage-coach, with a wooden Erzgebirge one, a small medieval one, possibly from those odd Blue Box micro-sets from the turn of the Century and a smashed-up Rocco one.

You often find these in bags of bits, due to their rarity people tend to keep the bits together, and enough bags of bits might produce a cobble'able-together one for a photo one day, so they all go in the box! And a cake dec' Indian!

Some other Erzgebirge bits, including what I think is meant to be a rabbit hutch? Three small novelties from gum-ball capsule-toy machines I think, a small semi-flat deer (should have shot it with the other three in the previous post!), and ice-cream man (premium?) and an anodised Rat Fink!

The pig is a hollow/two-part polystyrene affair, rather ice, but large and possibly from a farm vehicle? The preying child/Putti/angel might be a cake decoration, but is - I suspect - from a larger nativity scene?

The Marx Dinseykin 101 Dalmatian isn't broken; it's sort of scratching itself with the other paws? New to me and I'm getting closer to a full set of them, Puppy in my Pocket is the origin of the brown dude I think, while the poultry turned-out to be from a Hubley (or copy) farm truck of the larger-scale 'Tonka' type.

Only a couple of paratroopers in the December lot, but both interesting/new colours, so all grist to the mill and - note to self - I must get on with that page! Slightly out of focus - sorry!

Seated/plug-in vehicle accessory fellah's; the soldier on the left is new to me, and seems to be based, or part-based on the Tri-Ang Minic amphibious lorry crew? Theo van der Werden explained all the Tudor Rose/Poplar firefighters to me, and while I haven't got them to hand, I do have the notes for when we get them all on one page and make a final sense of them all!

Tractor-driver is a post Blue Box copy of an ex-Corgi driver I think, racing driver could be from anywhere, I have dozens and dozens of them and red, blue or black helmets are as common as unpainted, so making sense of them will be a major job one day, but I'm saving lots of eBay images in a folder to have a go! The little torso is from a racing 'soap box' cart, Hong Kong after Manurba or Siku or someone similar!

Kinder; we looked at the spacemen the other day, and I have another cowboy somewhere, but look at these two - a Mexican and a Sheriff! Same head, with different hats, bodies and legs, I think they were around in the 1990/2000's?

Smallies, clockwise from top left; two Micromachines to compare base-marks with the others, another Galoob; Action Fleet mini-action figure, Marx Miniature Masterpiece Charge of the Light Brigade figure and Blue Box resistance figter, Airfix RAF Recovery Set outrider, Minitanks Russian AFV crewman (sans arms!) and two Tri-ang Motorway figures, all good stuff!

Finishing off with the odd trio! A Mrs Noah, a tad play-worn, but there are several types, so they are always useful, the astronaut is from the Milton Bradley playset Star Bird. While I believe the slightly demented-looking gentleman on the right is another of the Homies figures!

Cheers again to Chris, another vintage lot shared with the rest of us!

H is for How They Come In - Chris - December '21 - 1 of 2

I sort of knew we'd overtaken this, and did explain to Chris back in Jan/Feb that to get 'up to date' I'd jumped a post or two, but I had hoped to get this one out before now, never mind, it's here now! I shot larger 'line-ups' with this one, so rather than three or four thematic posts, I've just split the sixteen into two-eights, as I shot them!

Initial sorting! Straight away I can see a couple of things I didn't shoot further for these posts; two of the W.Germany/Hong Kong-marked (can't remember which) coaches, we've seen them before, and with a number having come-in in the last year or two, we will return to them more fully one day, while in the bag are some Kinder (or similar Italian) pocket-money kit aircraft and I can see a micro-Chinook peeking out of the box!

These three are all interesting, they are all hard polystyrene, and it's a miracle the one on the left is still in one piece, probably a cake decoration, but a cut-above the usual fare! The middle one is a relief flat, probably surviving a long-gone snow-shaker?

While the one on the right is clearly sculpted by the same (possibly German) sculptor who did the Vitacup premiums (inset for comparison), with that same 'carved wood' effect, and we have seen a painted one of those, so not a surprise, so much as a nice find which seems to extend that 'family' of sculpts.

These are just lovely, I've got the funnies from Peter Evans (which might be Kinder) and I've got the HO Marx versions of the Babe's in Toyland guard, and now these have turned-up! Obviously cake-decorations and styled in the manner of some little angels I've seen, they are superb! About 30mm and made in polystyrene.

This was a nice surprise as I've downloaded several carded ones over the years (images only) while hoping a loose (or cheap carded-) one would turn-up . . . and here it is! Not Hong Kong's finest output, but back in 1960-something, it was just what you needed for your sandcastle on the beach! And we all had a bobby like this in our local community; although round here they had scooters - Honda 90's! One of my kittens came as a stray from 'Polly' Parrot, our local bobby! About 3&1/2 or 4-inches?

Army men! The big chap is from one of the 1:18th or 1:24th (?) kits, he's about the fourth now from various sources, all different, the guys who make those big kits tend to either not bother with the figures or replace them with servo-operated animatronics . . . I have a video somewhere I'll try to dig-out in the next few days.

The five 60-mil's are all new to the blog I think? Gulf-wars era, and really nice sculpts. The Matchbox copy might have been seen before, but I think it's a new colour, we've looked at the monogram piracies before, but I always grab/accept them when I can as there about 8-generations and I don't know how many of each there are until new ones stop turning-up!

Two smallies, then an interesting vehicle crewman, I may have a shot of him with his vehicle somewhere (one of the 'Spacex Cricket' copies, or Italian Polytoy type things?), while the last two are Tente from Spain, the construction system, similar to Lego, but preferable because they had space and military sets before the Danes!

Smallies! The camel is probably from a Christmas cracker, as will be the yellow dog (Setter/Springer type), and the Marx-copy Pecos Bill's. Hong Kog mini-sub crewman (Manurba copy) and a bag of Wild West and a Quaker gladiator horse (red), pink mini-horse (mini crackers?) . . . all lovely stuff!

We will have to return to these, as several have come-in since we did an over-view and follow-up a year or two ago, including this one! It's gone to storage and I can't remember if it's the marked Blue Box one or a more generic 'Home Farm' copy, but both are around somewhere!

Oddments, of which the obviously most-interesting is the 50mm or thereabouts miner? Bottom left, 'armyman' green plastic - is he a coal-miner, tin-miner, gold-miner? Tourist thing? Playset figure? A real mystery and a pretty unique figure? He's holding a mine-lamp and has a tin hat of the US construction/South African mine type.

The key-ring Beefeater is nice, the clown is from that set tentatively advanced as possibly the missing Hilco cake-decorations, the proboscis monkey is a lovely sculpt, but no clue as to maker, possibly a smaller accessory or 'companion piece' from a larger action figure card?

The WWI German appears at first glance to be an Airfix original of the sort you always find in mixed 'junk' lots, but when you look closely, he has a locating-stud on the base and is actually a plug-in piracy and the first I've encountered - he'll be shot with an original and dropped on the relevant page on the Airfix Blog in the fullness of time - some kind of vehicle or vessel crewman?

While, coming a few days after the Comansi GI's (down the page), the pink Indian is interesting as I have factory-painted vintage 35mm ones in Comansi packaging, unpainted 'realistic' plastic colours in Novalinea packaging (Esci knock-off boxes) and now this leery-coloured one, who might have been issued under either brand?

Many thanks to Chris as always for these donations, part two tomorrow!

HK is for Chinatanks II

This post was going to have a few more shots, but as I started editing them I realised I didn't even know why I took them, despite having some notes, but I think the notes were more for my own benefit, or curiosity than anything else, anyway, I'm going to share them with you just to clear them from the 'system'!

Starting to sort, we looked at these a while back with a view of a couple of the sets they come in, and here I'm bringing the loose ones together and sorting them, on the table is the stuff I had here from the TBS (to be sorted) box of AFV's just visible to the left, while the large bag was in storage, with a few other odds that were kicking around.

Which lead me to this tank-park - that's what they call them! The apple green AMX30 to the far right (Marine la Pen's?) is the latest version of these, is the only one found so far, and came with Matchbox-copy infantry and one or two other bits, via Peter Evans a few years ago. it's either unmarked or marked with a plain China, I can't remember. Also it's re-cut to a higher standard than the old ones.

While the three slightly herby-green ones in the centre are a smaller sample/issue/copy-set, who are all marked with a 'Hong Kong' and a capital letter thus;

• ·         T54/55 - 'O'
• ·         Chieftain (missing turret) - 'R'
• ·         Centurion - 'X'

They are all in storage now, and the notes have become as confusing as the rejected photographs, but I think the letter is on both halves, the HK on the hulls?

While the bulk of them have a more complicated set of markings, indeed if the notes are accurate (?) they have one or the other of two or more, but there is a consistency and with the two minor variants above clearly spottable, it's all a bit academic!

The turret numbers, are to help the packing staff get the right turret on the right hull, something which seems to have sometimes been strictly adhered to, sometimes totally ignored, consequently I've all these and still not colour-matched a lot of them - as you can see!

The number is found inside the turret and somewhere within the turret-ring moulding on the top of the hull, all the above are good-enough for 1:144th war games. Make of all that what you will, it's pretty nerdy-farty stuff, but it's out of Picasa and on a storage dongle, phew!

Because they were the next lot down in the box, I reshot the bubble-gum tanks while I had a parade-ground for them! We've seen them before once or twice, and I think I've bored you with how nasty the gum was, that it looked like a pencil-eraser and that we were 4/6 when we had them so late 1960's as a vague date. And we've also seen an earlier (1950's) Manurba one from which these Hong Kong ones were copied.

A is for Armed Insurgency!

I managed to shoot these Safari figures twice, as two posts! Anyway I've combined them both for a well illustrated overview of 12 figures! Safari's AWI sets, which will have their proper day in the sun in four years time I guess - if we're all still here!

Larger than some of their other stuff, these come six to a toob and while I looked out for some affordable ones, they tend not to be cheap . . . I still haven't got the combat/GI set because it only ever seems to be far more than it's worth, which is often twice the other sets?

The Brit's, had the moral high-ground, but a mad king! And by losing to the terrorists don't get the blame for the subsequent genocides of 9-12-million locals. The real fault with these is that you only actually get two riflemen, everyone else is what war-gamers would call the 'command' element!

Yeah . . . the tax avoiding, tax evading, tea-wasting French-fry lovers, and it's not as if we were wanting to tax their efforts, they mostly had slaves to do the hard work! A fife instead of a bugle, and someone looking like that chap on the left, on Mount Rushmore? Need's a hair-cut - that's the trouble with colonists, they forget their manners and go rogue!

The flag with the British bearer is correct for the period depicted, Ireland's red cross being yet to be incorporated, but it's incorrect on the toob-artwork, which shows the post-1800 Union flag! The white diagonals on the figure's flag could be a tad wider though.

Some of the figures come with little blister-type plastic wraps to try and hold them in the correct posture, but to be honest it doesn't work, neither do the small pods on some of the feet in lieu of proper bases.

Anyone who's seen Scumbag College's appearance on University Challenge will know why I put our boys on top! Nothing in this post is racist, indeed all it's obviously in jest (except for the genocide . . . and slaves), but if some of the PSTSM get excited . . . good!

M is for Micro-Mini Military Miniatures in Matchboxes

It seems to be an inescapable fact that the longer you collect and/or the wider you cast your eyes, the more obvious it seems that everything made by Western toy makers, under a certain size (about 4-inches), was pirated in Hong Kong at least once! Case in point . . .

. . . here we have the Triang-Minic push-and-go mini-tank (loosely, very loosely based on a Centurion tank) pirated in polyethylene, in a reduced size and sold as a ersatz Matchbox 1-75 type! Simplified with a pair of carpet wheels, it can't have come from anywhere else, as no one else made such a monstrosity of the accurists art!

To accompany it, here's a vague take on the Britains 'Beetle lorry', done as an ambulance. There's no obvious brand on either, a letter 'F' on the ambulance being probably a cavity mark, and an imagination-medal on the box ends holding no clue. A US pattern 6x6 truck and Jeep (probably ex-Dinky) were also available, to my knowledge.

These are in similar 'matchboxes', and are branded to ELM or Elm, a company which was known for producing small vehicular novelties for Louis Marx, in the Dinsneykin size. Indeed, some US sources would have it implied or have you believe Elm were a subsidiary of Marx, but these and what we're about to look-at, would seem to suggest they were only sub-contractors for Marx, free to issue their own production under different brand-marks.

As they are also sold under the Empress Toys label, as kits, now this is where this post falls-down somewhat and could have stayed in Picasa for another year or two, the photo's get a bit muddled/poor, shots weren't taken which I meant to take, and we'll have to return to them at some point, but heay! What the hell!

Anyway, here we have, from the box above, the dark green M44 ('ish) SPG with its corresponding kit, and a loose vaguely Staghound armoured car I had, with its kit. The bi-coloured A/C suggests a third issue at least, at some point?

2-days later - the other one's here!

From the left; French Panhard ERB; Staghound and the T34/85 (seen again below), the M44 seemed to get lost at this point in the photo-shoot, while I didn't do all the card-fronts, so the codes are missing, to which I must add; I never found the one or two I got from Ash, which may be in different packaging, so a bit of a fail overall!

The T34/85's compared, again this was a loose, unattributed sample in the collection until the packaged ones started to show-up, and neither of the boxed or loose pair have markings, but each of the bagged ones have a transfer sheet with basic markings. The kit has black wheels to the colour-matched wheels of the made-up one.

I have a loose turret, apparently from a smallT54/55 or T62*, which happens to sit on the armoured-car, while it waits for its body to turn-up in a junk lot (it will . . . one day!), the little one is an all 'ethylene, probably Christmas cracker/gum-ball novelty and we've looked at both the slightly churchill'ian one (probably a game-playing piece) and the Blue Box style DUKW, which is taken from the Matchbox 1-75 Series before. Finger for scale . . . and I forgot to get the Patton out and shoot it too . . . doh!

 

* When you have to start sending them to Ukraine, with called-up, old-man crews, you're scrapping the bottom of the war-losing barrel Vladimir Vladimirovitch you barking mad-dog fuck. We don't want a nuclear war, and if you start one we will vaporise Russia, you realise that?