P is for Picnic Time!

No blurb, as this little lot are way outside the Blog's parameters! However, I have got into the habit of posting these local/community type things, and this was to be found in the library this week, nowhere near Christmas! And given the number of tags for Teddy Bears (40), one hopes the odd 'bear person' gets directed here by Google from time to time?

The theme is promotional, advertising and fund-raising bears I think.

B is for back to B&M

Except these were shot months before the ones we saw this morning (yesterday), being the other, larger half of the stuff in the lost folder! It's mostly this modern trend for blind-bag collectables and nothing for toy-soldier purists, but it is what it is, and we shoot this stuff so you don't . . . err . . . you know what I mean!

Rainbow unicorns . . . "Rainbowcorns"! Two types of packaging, a starter set with multiple blind egg capsules and top-up bags in a counter-display carton. Zuru, they're 'up there' with Moose on this stuff!

"Bunnycorn" . . . yeap, you guessed it! Really; it's nasty stuff, in fact, it looks like it's been designed by Douggy Pledger or Dr. Knorkles [Artistic Oddities] in AI!

 

Playmates are chucking-out these Miraculous'ly like Pokémon figures, I know nothing else about them, and probably don't need to!

 

I can see these having more mileage than the above trio, and with larger play sets, there's the whole dolls-house thing going on here, but they will turn-up in mixed lots soon, especially those colourful Charity shop bags, so, if nothing else, it will help list them accurately on evilBay!

 

Not even close to the parameters of this Blog, action figures from the pink/purple end of the spectrum, but I shot them, so they're here! Licensed to Character Options.

 

I've seen these around a few times, and they are squidgy-stretchy types, but not something I'm tripping over myself to seek out! Branded to Jakks Pacific, who I thought had folded a few years ago, Google says I was probably confusing the death of the founder with the death of the company!

 

Another Playmates product, quite a nice set of totally out of scale (with each other) figurines from one of the recent movies, but was it a Godzilla movie or was it a King Kong movie, and does anyone except a hard-core fan give a shit?

 

These 'franchises' are being thrashed to death now, aren't they? Planet of the Apes, Alien-v-Predators, there's supposed to be a new/third Bladerunner on the way . . . sigh! I want new visions, not hackneyed old ones with their arses torn-out of them.

 

Poppy Playtime figures from Phat Mojo, some sort of happy-horror-anime? Wiki' says "Poppy Playtime is a horror video game where the player plays as a former employee of Playtime Co. who returns to the abandoned toy factory of said company . . ." So now I know!

 

These Among Us are of interest both as being boarderline useable space-aliens, and because we saw the same figures without the keychains, as similar blind-bags from Poundland recently? While . . . 

 

. . . these have just been seen WITH keychains (and no bases), in Poundland? The suspicion is, both were poor sellers in whatever was the earlier guise, and are now being cleared any way the wholesaler's can come-up with, and that subsequently the 'Series 1' they both march under will prove to be the only series for either? Both are on-line, multi-player, 'party' games.

 

And it was needing to make/highlight the twin-format point (keychains/no keychains) which led me to realise there was a missing post somewhere, and find it earlier today/yesterday, now. Both from Toikido, the Gang Beasts further branded PMI as manufacturer.

 

And three more, all from the above companies, the Goo Jit Zu from Moose having a window bag rather than being blind, a far more civilised way of doing these things, while both Brawl Stars (PMI) and Pet Simulator X (Phat Mojo)are kids video-games, although why they are still called video-games now technology has moved so far from VHS/Betamax is anyone's guess!

L is for Lost Lot!

Totally lost it with this lot, I'd named the folder stupidly and mislaid it in front of my face, but found it this morning and have just shuffled the images for a quick shelfie post, these were all taken in February, so mostly post Christmas 'first quarter' stock. And I was embarking on a 14-image post when I realised the first three were TKMaxx not B&M, so I'll fire these off and do the B&M in a minute!

Nearly bought this for the astronaut, but realised it would mean filling a whole tub with memory-foam shite, because 'set', so I'll wait 'till a badly-coloured-in one turns up in a mixed lot in ten years, bleach him overnight and give him a silver-grey wash! Marked up to both TJM in the UK, and a Maxi Save Pty., in Australia.

 

ID'ing mini dinosaurs, we've seen Teamsterz before, usually (but not always) badged to HTI, and I think we might have had a stab at deciding whether they were Supreme or Pioneer figurals, plumping for the latter if anything, but I can't be arsed to check the past posts - it's all on the dongles, so it will be right when the A-Z entries get written-up!

 

A couple of nice Animal sets; wild and extinct! Also Maxi Save in the antipodes, over here they are claimed for TJ Morris's of both Liverpool and Belfast, obviously the same TJM, and chosen for one reason TJM = TJMaxx; the US meister-office!

 

I thought these might be Terra by Battat in new packaging, but they seem to be different, however they are nice sculpts in their own right, and will be supplied by someone else.

G is for Gulliver, Germany

Well, that's weird . . . I could have sworn on my own life I'd photographed, scanned and Blogged the 'other' Gulliver, but I can't find them anywhere? They're not on the Airfix Blog (Confederates or US Cavalry - they should be on one?!), they aren't on this 'home' Blog, I haven't done the A-Z entry, although it's near ready on the external hard-drive (just lacking shots) and it's not in Picasa, as far as I can tell, so I don't know what happened there?

 

I'm guessing I must have planned the above, probably more than once, to have such vivid memories of doing something I clearly haven't and decided - each time - that as they were on PSR, which they are, I didn't need to? Anyway, to get them in the Tag List next to the Brazilian one, here's something else on them . . . what could have been!

Before the accountant ran off with all the money, they had grand plans for ancient Romans & Egyptians, medieval subjects and nappies! From the original publicity mail-shot.

W is for We Buy This Shit So You Don't Have To!

I managed to get a bloody parking ticket the other day, so this little lot from Poundland has proved to be more expensive than it should have done!

 

Peter Evan's; Plastic Warrior magazine's roving reporter, told us about these garden/houseplant ornaments, on his Faceplant group a few weeks ago, so while I was in Farnborough on another mission, I popped into Poundland and grabbed a handful, at a quid each they weren't bank-breakers, and will make useful additions / accessories to or in the stash. The little tree is broken but it's the only one they had left.

These are interesting, as we saw . . . no we didn't, they're not on the Blog, so they must be in the queue somewhere, I'll hold on that for now then, and just say - these are fun! Blind Bag collectables, from Toikido (as in 'toy-kid-o'?), also responsible for the 'Amoung Us' blind bags, seen here recently.

 

And we'll have more on them later today now (as I've just found a whole 'missing' folder of shelfies I sort of knew I hadn't found . . . or had lost?!!), without chains in their heads, I can confidently predict there won't be a Series 2, as we will see later today, these are a clearance exercise!

Lucky Bags! The modern take on them, and contents are very disappointing, for figure collectors; a four-year-old would probably be very happy with a colouring thing, a bouncy-ball (always good for annoying adults) and a bunch of stickers!

 

These aren't shit! They were in Peter Evan's last parcel to the blog (just in time for Rack Toy Month!), HTI set of China animals, the Panda is similar to the AAA one we've seen twice recently, but that would be too much of a coincidence, and actually this one is a little different and smaller!

 

Neither are these shit, but interesting, manufactured by Gulliver in Brazil, they are somewhere between the 1:76th and 60mm of the Atlantic originals they're copied from, at about 40mm, but are here being handled by a Fanabri of Portugual.

 

Easily findable on eBay, or they were a year or so ago, you get 2-5 mounted and 10-15 foot in an assortment of bright/primary colours which appear to be identical to the Brazilian output, or leftover production taken in lieu of debt, apparently Gulliver (Brasil) folded with debts, as did Gulliver (Germany)!?

C is for a Constellation of Capsules

No, not gum-Ball machine capsules, but at ten cents definitely prizes! If you can handle the rest of your childhood being plagued by junk mail and further demands to subscribe to other shite! I have these in the archive; offers involving Revell kits, hoping to get kids signed-up to Science Programe, whatever that was; something American! And the collective noun for capsules SHOULD be 'constellation'!

 

The 'white heat' of technology . . . all those years ago . . . what hopes man had then (whispers - in conflict with the Soviet Union!).

This is both sides of two direct-marketing, mail-order, insert cards from a magazine or periodical of some kind I think, and from the dates of the Gemini programme, actually flying missions, must date them to between 1964 and 1966, so around the time I was born!

This is a fascinating and quick little read, I'm glad he made it to the moon after his near death!

Anyway, finding the above caused me to dig-out that Wilton Gemini-craft we looked at the other day, and compare it to Marx's Mercury looking thing!

It's actually fascinating to see the evolution of the capsules over time, I must find a decent 1:72nd, 1:48th or larger Apollo capsule to show how it got broader still to fit a three-man crew, yet visually looks the shortest/squattest of the three. But here the Marx is definitely modelling the Mercury, with three flat windows rather than the Wilton Gemini's two 'bus-drivers' windows!

 

As you can see, the Marx return capsule is made from eye-blinding red, or flowing-lava orange, and is almost impossible to photograph! I used to think it was a reissue thing, but David Schafer showed one on a vintage card and it really is that colour!

 

Also, I'm now wondering if the Wilton cake-craft is a direct copy of the old Revell kit, as practically given-away by the Science Programme, although I should probably write 'program' so's to avoid charges of racism from you-know-who! Anyone seen the Revell kit?

E is for Ephemeral Extras

A couple of Supreme related scans, just now, one I'd forgotten I'd had, the other I thought I'd lost, and we'll start with the second first!

 

This is from the Christmas flyer from the recently defunct Wilkinson's Stores / Wilco, and was around 2001-4, they ran them several years in a row and I managed to get three, but I know I missed one, as I saw some of the vehicles in missing colourways, as part of a Santa' window display in the travel agents next door to the Wilkinson's in Farnborough (or Aldershot) in the third or fourth year!

Anyway, we've looked at two non-Command Central sets over the years (Mini Wheels) and most of the stuff loose, so I've given everything-related a 'Command Central' tag, if you click on it, you'll get everything in reverse order of posting!

The Strawberry Group's 2002-3 catalogue has these, and I've mentioned them before and fingered the Knights as Supreme, and the Wild West are supposed to be them too, and while I've only got the word of some 'Old Guard' on that, it sort of makes sense.

 

I was buying these for other people a few years earlier as I drove around the UK, and while Tiger Hobbies would take over the running of the Knights a year or two later, I don't know if they took over the Wild West, or when exactly the current pale-brown, floppy, flat-based ones replaced these Deetail-alikes? I think I now have all four cowboys, but not sure if I have any Indians, the prone-firing maybe?

On the same page, and as an importer like Strawberry might put all one supplier's products together, while we have yet to find any animals credited to Supreme, it's reasonable to assume these might be from the same stable! But that's pure conjecture/a guess, not gospel! Funnily enough, some of these horses may have come-in with the recent donations from Jon Attwood, so we may see them again soon!