S is for Starguards & Aliens

Another post from the 'Seen Elsewhere' folder, this one actually combining two posts from elsewhere, the loose figures from Britains Starguard (or Star Guard, 1981-1987'ish) and friends, and the rare boxed set (there's one on evilBay at the moment for a hundred-quid, which might be cheap?), which can go here as they're not going to generate a too-long tag-list, and it gets KP Foods on the tags!

I'm guessing these were a mail away offer, there aren't enough in here for a counter-top or behind the counter multiple-purchase offer type thing, so they must have been a save so many packet tops or coupons or something, but you get six of the standard yellow Starguards, and six of the black Aliens with the 'divers' helmets.

 

 

My set is definitely missing a decent sample of the kneeling-squat guy! But they aren't that uncommon, in any variation, so I'll pick up the rest one day, probably just get everything missing in a single feeBay session in a year or two. And, as we'll see in the next few minutes; my sample is currently quite small, overall!

 

The trouble with this set - as I see it, and it's only my opinion - was that they were dated the day they hit the stores, and not only dated, but incompatible with anything that had come before; Captain Video, Hill/Cherilea hollow-cast, similar lead-solids of Buck Rogers from the 'States, or latterly, the vaguely NASA stuff from Europe, Marx/MPC or Cherilea's 60mm giants in plastic, so there was little to do with them . . . if you know what I mean.

However, the plethora of space toys which have been issued since the Star Wars (and Battlestar Galactica) phenomena of the late 1970's means that actually they have grown on me a bit, and you can, if so minded (I'm really just a collector) now paint them up and add them to, or add-in all sorts! While they will enhance any space-toy display shelf!

The original Aliens, these are just the Starguard bodies in black with a red 'deep sea diver' helmet, another problem with the range; repetition throughout the range! Technically they should all have silver weapons, but over time other colours would be issued, and the slight 'swoppet' nature of the range, means anything goes to get the shot!

The Cyborgs! Again Starguard bodies, but with more complicated add-ons and a universal head/computing-unit! These have always suffered (from nearly new) with a stickiness caused by a reaction between the gloss, metallic green (possibly the Humbrol 50 enamel, which makes renovation easy), and furry lumps of these were a common site at car-boot sales or in rummage trays a few years ago, all covered in pet-hair, carpet fibres and dust!

My only 'Raider', he should have a gold weapon, and in catalogues is shown with a black or blue base. These are just the Aliens in an orange/blue scheme, and went up against white-bodied Starforce (or Star Force), of which I have none! Well, I say that, there may be one or two in storgae, in the TBS piles?

 

The Mutants, who would become Mutant Raiders are also lacking at Chez Smallscaleworld, they were similar to the Cyborgs, but had whackier heads/plug-ins and sometime come ina  metalic grass green.

Eventually, in 1985, a set of green, polyethylene aliens called Terror Raiders (which I do have somewhere, we'll see them here another day) were issued (after about the time it takes to realise your figures are going sticky in people's play-boxes!), which had actually been shown in the earlier 1984 catalogue, as different sculpts in a chrome-finish. By 1987 they were the only aliens in the catalogue alongside the orange Raiders and white Starforce, then the curtain closed on the whole Starguard 'experiment'!

 

Ten minutes later - I'd forgotten we looked at all the weapons here; lower shot.

 

And later the same day - Many thanks to John Begg for letting me photograph the KP Outer Spacers set in his private collection.

S is for Space Tank!

Definitely had this title before! You know I like a space tank or two, and I was quite pleased to pick this up, although a quick search on evilBay revealed a half-dozen, so not old, and not rare, but equally it was't pricey!

Boxed space-tank, or 'Reconnaissance Tank', made in 'China' so not that old, but carrying the legacy of 40-years-worth of cheap plastic or tin-plate space toys. There's a relatively illegible logo which seems to be an apple or a tomato, with two letters the second of which might be an 's', while the toy's code is prefixed 'PS', which means nothing to me!

 

The beast; it actually looks a bit 1980's to me, and while some Hong Kong manufacturers phased in the China marks prior to 1997, that mostly occurred in the year or two before the changeover of administration, so this is probably an early, all Chinese (mainland) company's efforts?

 

Posed with a few figures to give a sense of scale/size, and a shot of the relatively generic underside, there's a production code of some sort but no further clue as to a maker. The stickers could fuck-off with my blessing (it looks like a cake-decoration racing car!), but it's boxed and relatively mint, so I guess they'll have to stay!

S is for Seen Elsewhere - Space Shots

Quick round-up of spacey stuff I've posted elsewhere in the recent past, although that included stuff from 2021, and I'm sure we've had seen elsewhere-posts since then, but maybe not the space stuff?

All Spanish, I think? We saw the Credeco Romano-Greek bronze-age chap here, while the fireman is unknown to me and possibly from one of the major figure guys (Jecsan, Pech or Reamsa?) for a vehicle maker like Paya or Guisval?

 

While the focus here is the spaceman/space-alien, unpainted these are 'Sobres' by Montaplex and slightly cruder (flashier) mouldings, I don't know who put paint on them, but a minor make I guess, and they are slightly redolent of a couple of the Captain Video aliens with the long respirator / face-mask.

Saw a similar shot on the But is it Giant Blog, but here's another shot of a bunch of Giant's finest, reporting back to the hive-mind godhead-mother on their victorious exploits in Junior's carpet-wars!

I believe these are both gum-ball machine capsule prizes, obviously knock-off's of the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, or at least the chap on the left is, but I think they go together, and most Power Ranger baddies were men in rubber suits, so, as a figure, it figures! He has a half man-bat, half lagoon creature look about him (or her!) and Keith Bowman wondered if Ultraman might be an origin?

Ah yes! More shots of my Portuguese copy of the Sel-Mac (not "Set Mac"!) robot (or spaceman; there's a helmet missing), imagine . . . just imagine waiting five months to score a point off me with your 'I can post that too' by waiting for your very good friend to send you the image, only get the name wrong! And the name of your very good friend wrong! They're funny guys, very funny guys. All the info is to be found in the links I posted, back in January.

 

Jim from France are responsible for these two, NASA types engaged in peaceful exploration, one seems to be taking a sample while the other films him in close-up from a youie-stick! I can't work out if they are a styrene or a very dense PVC, so it's probably the same hard phenolic/formaldehyde polymer of other French stuff, but looking-feeling odd in pure white?

 

Finally, these came in not that long-ago, and obviously painted, which I will remove, Thomas spacemen and aliens in PVC rubber, I rather like the painting, which seems to have been done from the limited pallet probably provided by a paint-your-own thing, there's the three primaries, black and white . . . the metallic bits are the figure's own colours left unpainted.

X-40 is for Thunderflash!

Although I seem to recall Arto has it as a 'Space Rocket' too, somewhere. And before we look at it; if you only watch one thing today, this should be your viewing! I know I could embed it, but someone else (cheers Aidan John Bradley) found it on one of my Faceplant groups last night, so it would be a bit naughty, trying to take the kudos!

Apparently designed by Heinkel, it should have been the X-111! Hardly a rack toy, but from the Hong Kong cheapies section of the toy store, and probably something you could save your pocket-money up for over a few weeks, it's a bit ugly, but it grows on you once you have one to handle.

That German bomber nose-cone in full! Obviously, it's all about the figures, and this one is quite neat if hard to photograph, and while collecting vehicles only really took off to ID all those odd seated figures which have come in, the likelihood of finding a good example of this chap loose is unlikely as the amount of damage which would need to be created to free him would almost certainly damage him too! Yes; he has an ariel in his helmet!

 

On the ramp for a vertical launch, an exercise which is not easy as the two lateral fins are also the triggers for an XL5 type launching nose-section/capsule, and - like all these early spaceship toys - the otherwise clean likes are marred by the carpet wheels.

 

Pressing the fins launches the cab-unit, not very far on my example, but that's as much down to age as anything, the spring is a bit rusty! But it does work, and on 1960's lino-floors would have shot-off in a mission-like fashion I'm sure! Indeed, when I first got it, the two halves were apart in the box (it's a bit hair-triggered), and I spent a while wondering if I was missing parts of a battery-housing, before I worked-out what was going on!

 

Navigational equipment and the two fins, I don't think they are meant to come out with quite the ease of my example, but again, we can blame age for everything being a bit loose and flappy 'down below'!

Box Art, nothing exciting and my box is shot to bits, but I'd never bid on a 'new one', they are way out of my budget! And yes, the graphic is clearly aping the Project Sword logo!

 

In comparison with one of the Lido space vehicles for the Captain Video sets, the diminutive American polymer product makes quite a good Space Port tender, or even the apron tow-tractor!

Famous last-words on the pilot, one turned-up soon after, complete with ariel, and then a part-one which allowed a certian amount of restoration to this one too!

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2024/01/r-is-for-red-thunderchief-movie-car-90.html

S is for Stampers

Just a quickie, although I'm trying to save my shekels, I had to go to Home Bragains (who, answering my own question of a week or so ago, may be the future slayer of B&M?), to get a couple of vape pens (nine years no cigarette), and checking the toy section, which usually has little to interest us, found these.

 

One of those annoying lines wherein there are 12 to collect, but they are five-to-a-pack, so you must collect/acquire duplicates to obtain a set, and I was going to take a shelfie and move-on when I noticed they were only £2.99 each (presumably clearance stock), so quickly investigated the packs to find there were only three variables, and bought all three, intending to open one, which is what's happened.

 

These are the two which remain sealed, for now, one day I may get them out, or once all the boxes have been ticked (future entries on the A-Z blogs, TMNT round-up &etc), they may be sold on to raise funds for future purchases? As you can see, they are more cartoony/stylised sculpts than the more realistic ones we've seen from Yolanda, Phidal and Playmates et al. And they are solids, not action figures.

The five who have been released from their vac-formed prison, vaguely 54mm compatible, albeit with the very thick bases associated with this type of novelty, you can see that Donatello is much fatter in this iteration, while the other three are much skinnier (two of each character, plus four other figures), and while I did Google the 'Rise of' era, I couldn't find a good explanation for this change, nor why they can be brothers when apparently they are four different species of turtle?

 

Dirt cheap rack-toys, out there now!

F is for Follow-up, Just a Follow-up!

I few things which have popped-up here in the last few weeks, to which I've added another 'thing', so, shove them all together and we've got a bitty post, of limited interest, but hey, you can't be perfect everyday!

A shelfie I took in The Works last week, nothing exciting, but it all helps, or will help ID this stuff in the future, I think there were three different packings of the dinosaurs; clearly combining a set of medium-sized ones (the ones from WHSmith a few years ago?) and a set of smallies, while the farm sets all seemed to have the same contents.

 

I would have bought a couple, but until we complete on this place I have to be frugal, in case I need to find another six-month's rent in December - which is frighteningly not far away now!

Charity shop handful, the large Policeman's base matches the farm lady we saw here a while ago, she was an Elastolin clone, and while I think he's more original, the connection might help explain his slightly German look?

 

The bear is a MEG Teddy in my Pocket, and just happens to look like Paddington, I don't think he's meant to be/represent Paddington, but I'm equally sure it wasn't a coincidence! And the Toy Story model of Jessie is a Nestle premium.

 

While on the blind-bag front, from the 'We buy this shit...' department, and also from The Works (although they will be all over the place), came this Super Thing, from Magicbox, a small foamed-rubber 'kin, with a hole which can be stretched over a pencil, even though they don't seem to be specifically designed for pencils?

M-Toy is for Marty, May, Moon and . . . err . . . Sun!

This should have been combined with last night's post, but I was tired and running out of puff, so I just split it and went with the circus stuff first, although, as I then spent an hour or so, finding and adding the last three images in that post, I might have been better integrating this lot and leaving the others for another day, but there you go, some pretty fluid evolution here at Small Scale World!

The press page as presented in Bill B's catalogue, I've enlarged the relevant or interesting bits below, and we'll look at it all in more detail, bearing in mind that extracting decent imagery from a .pdf folder is never easy!

The company is called May Moon, but I don't think I've ever seen a toy branded to May Moon, or 'Maymoon', however we have seen here, an early (1960's) set of those I-Ton Humber mini-trucks in Maysun branding, while some of the Circus are marked Maysun, under the base, of which some come in M-Toy packaging, so we can extrapolate that it's all the same Maysun-M-Toy-May Moon, which leaves Marty, who again have some bi-branded cards (Marty and M-Toy)

The best place to go for the Marty story - which seems to be unique to the fantasy-Sci Fi set of aliens & barbarians (ray guns and axes!) is Shaun's site here, where one of the sets is in that same Gordy packaging as the Pikit sets we saw back at the start of this year's Rack Toy Month, so there may be a Pikit version out there, Brits?

As this catalogue is dated 1986 and makes no mention of Marty, we can safely assume from all the available evidence that Marty was a short-lived (one line) brand-mark and May Moon traded first as Maysun, then as M-Toy.

 

Any connection with Marty McFly (which would point to hellish-cynical marketing) is dashed by the fact that the toy set came out several years before the first movie!
 

Among all the usual rack-toy guff, I thought these two were worth enlarging as they are a copy of the Raphael Lipkin set we saw here, although they may have been changed to lay flat, but it might just have been arranged like that for the catalogue images?

The tractor/trailer seem to be a pure Timpo farm knock-off's?

While the above pair were enlarged for obvious reasons! The number of times I've seen these confused with Star Toys recently is a mystery, I mean, how do you confuse rubber copies of Britains with polyethylene copies of Airfix & Timpo? And years after other people have sorted it out? Well; because, the trouble with Faceplant is that some of these guys are whittering-away [as fact] from a position of pure ignorance!

I think we've seen the helicopter before, but nice to put a name . . . or three . . . to it! While I had the lower shot, of colour variation in the German infantry bodies, kicking around for a while, taken with a load of other stuff, so that's that out of Picasa, and Maysun, Moon and Star sorted out . . . d'yer see what I did there! I will do it all properly, one day!

M is for Maysun, May Moon, Marty AND M-Toy!

A bit of a reveal tonight, one I've been sitting on since, well, about four or fives years ago, when Bill B gave us his catalogue, so credit to him first, but it meant a few puzzles were cleared up, not least that LP was LB for Lik Be, but that took another year or so to sink in, this was an easier fit as three of the brands were in the one ad! But that will be the next post, this is all about a trip to the circus!

 

 

If you recall my purchase of a circus card at 2022's Plastic Warrior show in Twickenham, there was already a move toward this post then, and had been for a while, I have cleaned it from the dusty thing we saw then, and added the feebleBay image on the right, which I suspect is a 1980's (?) Target set.

Check out the giraffe though! It's the Britains baby-giraffe, commonly copied by Hong Kong makers, but rearing up!

Two more from evilBay; another branded to M-Toy as mine is, the other - 'Crest' from Pioneer Products Inc - more of a curates egg, with the Maysun ringmaster, and some non-circus, wild or 'Zoo' animals, which may be from the M's, or may be bought-in from someone else?

 

While here, back in 1966, we have Wilton carrying two sets, a bog-standard range of the Crescent-for-Kellogg's piracies (black & white image), and a lion-tamer vignette with some more non-circus animals. I suspect these might be from the M's, particularly as they are of similar design/material to the other output, the larger animals in the Pioneer set are chalky and carry very different decoration.

 

I have yet to see the original clown with hoop in any of the M-Toy, Maysun or generic sets, so he seems to have missed the pirate boat at some point?

My newest lot came with this tent, there is nothing empirical to tie it to the figures and it may be from another set-line-range-maker altogether, but it has the feel of Hong Kong in the crudeness of the parts and the fit of the cloth-cover reminds one of all the Strawberry Shortcake stuff, or trolls, all a bit 1970's!

 I don't know when they started adding their own (?) designs, but it's obvious now these are all from the same stable, as various ones turn-up in other sets, with the Kellogg's copies. Being strict, there is still a question mark over a few, but plastic colours, marks (there are several different marks) and paint, tie-them together.

The ostrich rider is a conversion of the standard Kellogg's clown, just doing the splits to ride the ex-Timpo (?) bird! While the seal is very different to the more common, larger, grey one. There is no real sign of the wheel/tyre having ever been on my poodle (ex-Corgi sculpt?), but it could have been there, there's certainly one in the other M-Toys set above?

Figures; we saw the lion tamer and another male in this post - Three Ring Circus - along with a loose version of the carded lady (ex-Marx?), and becasue both performaing animals and new people keep turning-up, we may not have found them all yet, I certainly still need that rearing giraffe!

 

One of the harder to find items is this chap, he's not rare, I've several broken ones including two here from recent purchases/donations, but I managed to get a good one on feeBay a few months ago, and that was a comedy of errors.

 

I'd asked the seller to pack him carefully, which he did, but the useless, overpriced 'International Shipping Program' managed to lose him, 'deliver him' (to their own hub, not me or the sender), deliver him again, to the sender (but he still hadn't received him back either) then they flagged it up as 'at the hub, but missing electronic tracking data'? After two or three weeks of looking at that, unchanging message, daily, I requested a refund and apologised to the sender for costing him, he cheerfully replied that because the 'programme' had lost it, he'd had a full refund too! Four weeks later it was dropped-off without a signature being requested! Our civilisation is literally grinding to a halt!

So, anyway I have one now, and took a knife to one of the others, so he'd just look irate - "It's my turn!"

The Crescent-for-Kellogg's bits, the Elephant has always been sub-scale, and must be assumed to be a performing baby - very cruel, and it's a measure of our slow progression to humanity, as we have always preached but rarely practised, that we have all but finished with real, live animals in circuses and fairs now, not so in other parts of the world though, where bears in particular, and other animals are still chastised for laughs.

 

In the boxed set at the other end of the link, we saw the horse-acrobat with her little seperate base (as she is in one of the sets above), but here she's doing the ridey-thing! And I wouldn't want you thinking all this stuff is from the M's, I have, in the 'master collection', identified several generations of the seal, elephant and lion, while the elephant-riding monkey (also in the linked set) looks like it was bought-in from Blue Box.

As Blue Box, Holly and New Maries all had a level of cross-pollination on farm, zoo and Noah's Ark sets, with similar connections between some of them over Chinasaur-dinosaurs and 'Gygax' monsters, I wouldn't be surprised if one of them also knocked-out a few of these, especially the commoner ex-Crescent scuplts?

A few of the Crescent/Kellogg's figures I had here, not the best sample, but you can see the chap on the far right, bottom, is the one who seems to have escaped copying and therefore remains uniquely British! Probably as simple as that the pirates didn't trust themselves to pantograph and reproduce the fine moulding of a decent hoop?

 

The quite similar horse-rider from Charbens, I don't know which came first, but this was probably the original as it may have come from the earlier hollow-cast?

 

While Blue Box themselves had a stab at the 'Big Top' with these sets of Circus Chimps, although firstly there are more other apes/monkeys than actual chimpanzees, and only two are new for the sets - the piano-playing gorilla and the elephant-rider - the rest are from the standard zoo ranges, suitably enhanced with Wild West cacti and furniture from their dolls house line!

Image added a few weeks later, for the hell of it!