UFO is for Undersized Forces of Offworlders

As a sort of 'follow-on' rather than follow-up from the recent eraser and other mini-UFO/Space type posts, including the Buck Rogers stuff (which Woodsy and Mitch managed to miss!) I found these, but they are all teeny-tiny little things no bigger than a thumbnail, so we go down a size, to Micro-UFO territory!

 

These are currently on Amazon, branded to Kid Fun, for possibly a few too-many quid, and seem to consist of 24 sculpts, each of three colours for a 72-item count, no more than 30-somthing pence each, so one can't be too harsh, if you are looking for things to fill party bags, 20 kids will get at least three each?

While these may have a bit of age about them, although not as much as the graphic might suggest? Japanese minis sometimes referred to as 'glico' due to the use of similar minis as premiums in the Glico food combine's confectionary products, and here, possibly intended as erasers?

 

Looking at the two sides of the card, there 'might' be one or two other designs, but I suspect this is all of them, there are six designs here, all slightly different, but all marred slightly by the little finger-grip rod sticking out of the top of each.

 

Obviously, my Japanese language skills are less than rudimentary, but I think the right-hand view's card is showing the types of movement 'observed' by UFO watchers? While the left view a more fanciful showing of 'known' UFO designs! Branding looks like it could be Crescent! Or Crescent Moon?

There is a seventh item in the bag which I suspect shouldn't be there? Unlike the hard vulcanised ribber of the other six, this one is a soft silicon of the stretchy-animal type, and is either a malformed piece of factory-junk, or a bag with two corners tied-in with string?

 

If the former; it's just fallen or been thrown (by machinery?) into the bag accidentally, if the latter; it belongs in a different set, perhaps with a figure to hold/carry it? It could however be a bonus item (like Strelet's streletsi?), to be collected one at a time by multiple purchases of different sets to build a 'free' set? You can see the fine detail on the actual UFO's also contrasting with the smoothness of the probable interloper!

And they really are all no bigger than a thumbnail!

 

They remind me of two of my favourite sci-fi shorts, one of which might have been done as a Tharg's Future Shocks cartoon in 2000 AD? In the first a mighty invasion fleet has spent many-years in hyper-space travelling from wherever to invade the luscious looking Earth, only to materialise in front of a big-rig on a US highway which promptly smashes them into a billion pieces without ever seeing them, as they were no more than a cloud of gnats in our scale, the other story was similar, but a dog licked them off his food after they landed, or something like that!

Haha! Two hours later and Geoff found this one on eBay, now (nine dollars plus postage), same set, same soft silicon-looking addition, but clearly a 'death star' type space station, with one or two sucker 'ears', which have obviously deformed on mine, so that's that mystery solved!

M is for Minor Swivels & Swoppets

Bit of a mix here, some 'seen elsewhere', some old Picasa clearance and one recently 'in' who's gone out, and he isn't really a swivel or a swoppet, but he is an over-mould, so he's here!

A 54/60mm motorcycle dispatch-rider from Manuel Sotorres of Spain, from their sort of post-war/contemporary range back whenever. They seem to have been quite common in Spain at the time, but don't turn-up so much over here, which meant I grabbed this when I saw it!

 

Nardi of Italy provide this swoppet cowboy in the style of Britains' own Swoppets, or at least his belt is modelled after theirs, otherwise he's more like early-Timpo or Charbens; all polyethylene, some paint and none of the PVC accessories Britains gave theirs.

 

Torres Maltas, 45mm figures, also from Spain, and yes, I get both (these and Sotorres) mixed up, and if I'm being particularly dimwitted I can confuse either with the Miguel Torres winery and their plastic bull seal-tags - seen here in the past!

 

I have a bit of a mental block on these for another reason too, I keep thinking I have a bunch 'somewhere' in the pile, but actually I think this is all I have, and I saw some others, somewhere else, and just think they may be hiding in the stash! So three mounted, helmeted troops and a sailor - they have swivel arms.

While this chap could be Nardi, but I suspect he will turn out to be Xandria from Holland, when the dust settles. He is part PVC and part PE, but the two over-moulded or heat-welded in 'layers' for a 'solid' figure, unlike the movability of some of the key-ring 'stacks' from Xandria.

And in conversation with Peter Evans and the recipient of it (I liked it, but I knew someone who's need was greater) we agreed it's probably depicting St. Nicholas, rather than some random bishop or archbish' handing out magic gloves, paired amulets and anointed rods-to-god to any old Tom, Dick or Charlie!?

F is for Follow-up - Return to Infant Farms

We've looked at these twice now;

 

First Visit

Second Stab

 

But there is always more to find, another chapter of the narrative to be told, and today we're looking at a 'West German' version from Magneto (more on them in a subsequent post), a name which could the one jhnptrqn remembered as his brother's 'French' set, on the original post;

 

The generic we looked at last time was clearly aping this set, even to the clear polystyrene lid, however this (original?) has a deeper box and floating tray, but is otherwise very similar. And it establishes the rules followed by the Hong Kong clones, to wit; three smaller houses with pitched roofs, one larger one with gable-ends and a slightly larger door, the towers with their bridge-piece and the designs of animals, figures and trees.

The sides of the box offer clues to information which my incomplete sample would otherwise not give-up, sheepdog and sheep, a pine/fir tree, a trough which seems to be a reduced-size version of the bridge and the fact that they were intended as beach toys as well as home-entertainment! It also gives suggestions of ways to use the few building elements to combine for larger structures or a church!
 

 

The roofs are glued on with this set, unlike the HK ones, where they are loose, and all the buildings are larger than their clones. While the 'sprulettes' which came in the box seem to be suggesting the four missing sheep were a softer polyethylene, everything else here is polystyrene.

 

It also looks like the Hong Kong makers we've seen previously here at Small Scale World may have invented the other figures, but there may well be a 'W. GERMANY' marked town set or village with the other poses?

M is for More Mini Military Machines

I only posted Bren Gun/Universal carriers the other day, but I was also posting them elsewhere, then a Lone Star one turned-up, and I had a separate shot of the Tudor Rose one, to which I've added a couple of comparison shots to give the post some originality!

So, the new member of the team first, it's not a particularly fine example, and it could have done with a clean before I shot it! But as a sample it does what is needed.

 

Lone Star, die-cast mazac/zamak early version, also came in sand paint, often with German markings, not inaccurate as the Germans captured a fair few during the run to Dunkirk, and would also press them into service when they captured them in the Western Desert. [Oooh! Just avoided a 'dessert' typo there; I wonder how many of them there are on the blog, Doh!]

Some more shots of the recently seen here, Marx Battery operated late version carrier, not much to add to whatever waffle I appointed it with last time, needs comparing to the Timpo one, I think they are a similar size - biggish?

 

The Tudor Rose version on the right, also a late pattern, with the Dibro tinplate novelty push-and-go tank to the left, the both, trundling down a French country lane, lined with Lombardy Poplars, still on the Cofalu card - possibly aimed at the Tour De France line, or the farm?

 

The trees are hard polystyrene, the tank is quite common and must have been very popular at one point, probably due to its cheapness, maybe one of the first, affordable toys, mass-available after the war? The carrier has both Bren-guns intact, which is uncommon for this model, they are both easily damaged.

Comparing Marx, French composition, Lone Star and Tudor Rose mini military machines! I still need a Britain's slush-cast one to compare with the TAT's, and when that happens I'll try to remember to dig-out the Timpo one!

R is for Rubber Riders

Just a quickie, from the 'Seen Elsewhere' folder, I happened to find, while sorting a while ago, all the common iterations of Thomas's rider figure in one place, at the same time, so I shot them together.

From the left; Vintage biker with 1930/40's soft 'driving' hat* and googles, the motorcycle in hard polystyrene, the rider a soft PVC, then the Jeep driver, who we worked-out might double as a stretcher-bearer, he's polyethylene, although PVC ones can be found I think, finally the Mexican on a donkey, all PVC, but the donkey can be found in polyethylene. His hat is a plug-on . . . or wedge-on!

*It's actually more of a 'Newsboys' hat, than the true driving hat, aka; 'Ivy 'or Flat hat

B is for Battle Dressed Combat Soldiers!

When this post was in the queue for Rack Toy Month last year, it consisted of about 20 appallingly bad shots of the contents of the bag, with tons of reflection, in which I was trying to shoot at least one good shot of each pose, for collaging into groups, but I ran-out of time to crop and edit them.

There weren't all the poses in the bag which was another spoiler of the project and then, when getting toward the end of the garage emptying, I found their box, and managed a whole new shoot with loose figures and a few silver 'plated' ones!

The oddity with this set (and the reason I had them stored separately in two 'zones'), is that the ANZAC clones are, generally, a tad bigger than the 8th Army clones (both from the Airfix 1:32nd/54mm figures), so, for years, I thought I was seeking two sources! I still am of course, but now it's to find the chromium-guys set, rather than two nationalities of set!

 

How many officers? You can see here that the ANZAC Officer with pistol (converted from the Airfix Commando) is heading for 45mm, the other ANZAC's being around 40mm, with some of the 8th Army no more than 35-mil! And they go very well with the Rado Industries/Ri-Toys, definitely not Blue Box ANZAC's! Which means they could be used with the actual Blue Box too!

The mark shows up better on the metallic-sprayed set, and err, that's it for now, currently an unknown originator's 'generics', I'll return to them when more comes to light! I aught to add that I think the two chromium ones here were from Chris or Peter, as the officer wasn't in the storage lot and these images were from the old folder, so thanks - as always - to both.

W is for White Button Walkers . . . and a Jumper!

Having seen a jumping Guardsman in the previous post, I guess this little lot can slot in here, as, while they are mostly robots, there's another of the riders first!

 

I think we are actually talking US cavalry here? But with Union and Confederate versions of the white-button walkers out there, he could be drafted into the Union forces. Size wise, he could be a useful officer to a bunch of Playmobil infantry, if you're into that kind of thing  - and two recent books on toy soldiers have both touched on them? It's not for me, I haven't got the room for more juvenilia, and I have enough infant toys, not least; US Cavalry Jumpers! And Robots;

C & D industrial (or Industry) Ltd., are claiming responsibility for this slightly demented-looking blue-meanie! It's almost like they've tried to apply the rules of those spiky Manzinger Z/Gundam types to a traditional walker, with a bit of the then current big hit - R2D2 - thrown in for good measure!

 

Lovin' this guy, very similar to the yellow childhood one who was the first of these seen here at Small Scale World, and he has a similar removable, coloured, transparent dome and chromium-plated gubbins beneath, however I think he's a rival set as the dome is deeper and the feet are different, I well remember when the yellow-one was found in a Christmas stocking, the other stocking had a different design, but the domes were the same!

 

This guy is definitely mirroring one of the larger battery-operated types, but in miniature, it's almost a disappointment his cabinet doors don't open to stream-forth a shower of sparks! I also think he's probably the newest seen here yet, and modern China-production (no markings), maybe even quite contemporary?

And, yes, I'm still up, listening to the local election results, Tories are getting a kicking, and Labour are under performing, so the Librals and greens are picking up the slack!

U is for Up! And Down! The Squway'ah!

This is as close to any Coronation bollocks as I'm going to get, so if you're wetting your kecks at the thought of all those gushing 'Royal Correspondents' on the flickering cod's eye this weekend, this is as good as you're gonna' get here! And Lizzy said Cam'ie could be Queen Consort, not "Queen"! They don't have my allegiance, inheritance-tax evading, promiscuous popinjays . . . and I'm certainly not muttering an oath at the telly on Saturday, like some slavish serf!

 

What's the actual fucking matter with people, find your balls, you sycophantic soap-dolls! We could be a secular democracy with a written constitution holding the government to account and a figure-head president of the type Italy or Germany enjoy, instead people are having paroxysms of wetness, at the inheritance of accumulated wealth, stolen from us!

Aaaannnnd . . . rant over! Well . . . it's all so silly and medieval! I have picked up a few novelty and other ceremonials since Christmas, most in a single purchase from someone thinning his collection, and one or two others, there was a newie in Chris's lot (yes, I thanked him elsewhere the other day, Chris Smith has sent another fantastic parcel of oddments!) but he'll appear separately in future posts, as he's paired with a policeman.

Here we have a pair of resin guards and a clicking-biro with flocked bearskin, a 'white-button' jumping mounted guardsman with two more resins; one cartoony the other a teddy-bear, which is the third iteration of Bear Guardsman I think, so well have to gather them together in a post of their own, one day!

 

He's called a 'Cugglie Wugglie' which is almost as nauseating as your average Royal Correspondent, but some marketeer though it was a good idea, even cuddly-wuddly would be an improvement on that massacre of the language! Branded to EPL, good luck finding anything about them on Google, English Premier League takes all the spots! There's plenty about CW's and plenty about EPL CW's, but nothing about the company?

The big guy seems to be some sort of powered-novelty, with a red light in his chest, but I can't work out how he works, his moving-arms, err, don't, and his flap (which hides a red light) just falls open, so I'll have to unscrew him at some point and look for a battery compartment . . . and possibly a broken spring or catch of some sort?

Two 40mm Spot-On Tommy Spot figures, one fully decorated in matt paints, the other half-decorated in gloss? Not from the Pomeroy stuff, so a mystery as to the reson/origin of the second one? And two Japanese blow-moulded celluloid 'doll' types, I have quite a few of these now, all slightly different, and never pass up on a cheap one!

I think we've seen these before, but they were here and got included in the photo-sesh' round-up! A pooping guardsman dropping a Putin and another novelty Biro!

 

Disney (and Warner) goes to London? Guys? WTF? NO! Dress them as US Marines, by all means, but we don't want you colonising our pomp and circumstance . . . the 'pomp being pomposity, the 'circumstance' being that William the 1st stole all the land, and they've held on to most of it! Another Coronation? It there no-end to them? Perhaps we could book-end monarchy with a pair of Williams' . . . now there's an idea! Yah-Boo, Sucks!

E is for Eggcellent Effigies!

I had this figure, can't now remember if it was from Chris, Peter or one of my own purchases (I suspect Chris, but thank all) but I posted it in the other place, asking for help, and Peter rememeberd it was part of a set of Hong Kong cake decorations from way back when . . . 

. . . so what I thought was a squib and powder-pot on some unknown Nappy, was actually a limp brush and glue-pot on one of the 'King's Men'! He's a perfect 54mm though and, like most HK cake decorations; a hard polystyrene plastic.

 

So, I was off to evilBay to see if I could find the rest of the set, the figure on the left was the first candidate, and a cheaper one was procured, and a second soon followed from SSCO, seen in the right-hand image with some figures that were hanging around . . . and they were from Chris, so the soldier must be too? Another Spanish National Guardsman and an Oklahoma standard-bearer from Argentina.

 

It seems Peter Evans was by now on the case and the two, top-right, arrived a day or two before my next purchase on the subject (another from SSCO), they have a wire-twist, heat-sunk into their backs for use as - rather diminutive - Christmas tree hanging ornaments, the wires having been carefully removed from the backs of Peter's.

 

Which, as I kept photographing them as they came in, got us to this point, and I don't think I've found any of the ones that might go with the guy on pasting-duty, but certainly the two Humpty's can sit easily with him and these are all 'styrene.

 

In the meantime, I couldn't resist the bisque chap on the left here, seen with Marx 'Fairykin', who was no-money, BIN, I collected the next as an Internet image, being a larger ceramic ornament, while the candle-holder one on the right seemingly matches these? Even to the point of putting them together at the other end, as they probably belong together?

 

By now, I was getting a little out of control on the subject of Humpties and ended-up bidding on this hugormous PVC-rubber Palitoy squeaky-toy, who's squeak has died without ever leaving the bag! :-(

Both sides, scale comparison coming below, it's as good as the day it left the factory, apart from the dead squeak, and while nowadays these are all sold as dog-toys, they used to be popular with kids too, in a simpler age!

 

Oh, it's not Poly Vinyl-Cloride, it's 'Cascathene'! And four-shillings and ten pence was a lot of money back when we last used a stupid currency based on twelfths and sixteenths! In today's money; about four quid?

 

The line-up around the time I was Blogging the Fairykins, I keep searching, about once a week, but so far haven't really found anything to match the chap with the floppy glue-brush, so a future post for sure! And I have the larger Marx one somewhere!

 

For now, I leave you with the fact that he has never been described as an egg, just shown as one, all people ever publish is the rhyme, which makes no mention of his material make-up?

F is for French Relatives!

I discovered yesterday, while looking for something else, that Faceplant now hide or delete anything more than 3-years old on Facebook Groups? Scrolling back through my own submissions to a site, I came to a halt at May 5, 2020, I don't think it applies to personal timelines (for now) and - don't get me wrong - I'm not complaining.

 

There's so much duplicate shite posted by the simple-minded (and me!) all over the Internet, that it would come to a grinding halt if someone didn't do something occasionally to get rid of some of it. But what it does mean, is that I can get the 'Seen Elsewhere' folder emptied here, as it will all disappear there!

 

To that end, I posted these as separate posts over the bank-holiday, but I've pulled them together and added a couple of new shots and a couple of older ones!

Originally posted a couple of three months ago, these were a question mark to me, having something of the Starlux about them, but obviously not, and Brian Carrick kindly ID'd them as Guilbert copies of Clairet, both also French.

 

I have a larger selection of poses, but the others are a bit 'chewed', so these are the good ones, Guilbert above and Clairet below, I wonder if the Clairet are in fact the copies, they seem to be ever-so-slightly smaller, and there is a faint lack of detail on buttons and pockets etc . . . ? Also, I think Guilbert disappeared first, while we learnt, looking at the Knights years ago, that Clairet morphed into other brands and are almost/sort of still with us!

 

A few comparison shots, we looked at the Hugonnet and other copies here, all looks a bit muddled now, but we will re-do the French stuff in a year or two, as I have everything in folders (even Guilbert! Thanks, Vichy!) and can ascribe most of the stuff in the four posts of that sequence, more accurately now.

 

The 'new' sample of Bazaar figures, actually there are a few in that link above, so more future sorting to look forward to! They aren't by Hugonnet (as far as I know), they aren't Cofalu, and they aren't Vilco, but beyond who they aren't, I have no clues, I wondered MF, who did mono-coloured rack-toy bags of farm and others, but they were mostly Hong Kong-product jobbers I think?

 

A few colour variations, I suspect the chap on the right with the black equipment/weapon is slightly later, and another reason for suspecting the Guilbert came first ia that they are more realistically painted to what was being worn in Indo-China and North Africa (olive-greens, not camouflage), than the rather more toy-like gloss green helmets of the Clairet?

F is for Final Round-up . . . Rangers and Scouts

We've looked at the X-200 Space Ranger once or twice here at Small Scale world, so I'm actually going to concentrate on the space scout, which isn't obvious in either of the 1954 annuals, but despite appearing four times in the tag list here, is not covered that well on the blog, with one tag being the X-200 renumbered by Dimestore Dreams and the other mentions being single image posts or follow-ups to other things.

 

But first, I did look at the Premier sculpts (first post in this sequence) once before. I think it's one of these which has joined my fleet, possibly the other 5" Dart - version 6, to use Ed's nomenclature.

 

The back cover of the Adventure Annual shows two versions, the green one having a closer resemblance to the real thing as far as window-panel count is concerned, but I think the other (Swift's ship) is a different variant in real life, the 'bat-wing' tail-planes marking it as a Tudor Rose Space Patrol craft? Image on the right from Ed Berg a while ago.

 

We looked at the Ranger in detail not that long ago, here, and in the strip Swift mutters of the enemy ships that "Those must be the secret X-200's", so he knew his toys! But then they were on the artist's desk!

 

So, to finish-up, the X-100 Scouts; the metallic blue one (probably Kleeware) was in the lot I had to let go, but I've since picked-up a silver one (probably Tudor Rose, it has a hole for hanging/mounting on/off something), while Ed Berg also sent the red-one (Pyro?). In the past we have seen semitransparent Skandi' ones, versions with a floor piece, and I know a push-and-go was made, so quite a versatile little model!

 

And they are all septuagenarians now! To be in British 1954 annuals (printed at the end of 1953, for the Christmas market), they must have been born by Pyro, Thomas and Co., in the US, early 1953 at the latest?