T is for Two-Dimensional Terrasaurs!

I think we've looked at these before and I explained my lack of a decent sample, but I've picked-up a few interesting bits on them, or related to them, in the last few years, so time for a better overview despite the lack of samples! Nabisco's Dinosaur Flats.

 

Except they aren't Nabisco, and there are only twelve of the 20, and I don't think they are even the Aussie issue, in fact, I think they are quite recent manufacture, (possibly from older tools), and came in this red and a mid-blue (below), and in the slightly chalky polyethylene of some really cheap rack-toy 'Army Men'.

As we can see from this comparison they are slightly smaller copies of the original set, but are otherwise quite good, sculpturally, with minimal loss of etched detailing, and no more than a millimetre smaller, overall, with thicker bases.

 

Most notable is the loss of depth to the mouldings, making them even flatter flats! The UK issue came in various shades from almost pure white to an 'ivorene' shade of clotted-cream!

 

Wagner in Germany also carried these - possibly first? And I'm pretty sure some of the base-names were Germanised, so they are something to look out for, but those with the same spelling can't be told apart, unless they have a Wagner sticker, which you don't usually get on the cavity-based issues.

 

Another comparison shot.

 

I am slowly picking up the set, but at my current rate I'll need at least another 30-years! The red polyethylene one on the right, is a modern copy, possibly from the same source as the animals I got from The Swagman's Daughter (and which were used as window-missile prizes, on feast-days in Malta), a few years ago, of a second, nicer set of Euro-flat premiums, where each animal comes with a little bit of prehistoric landscaping! Here, it's probably from a Christmas cracker?

From Cluck 1, and I can't find Cluck 2 right now, which had a better image of one of the kids-comic advertisements for the series, but, it's a checklist, and Cereal Offers have the whole set and more here;

http://cerealoffers.com/Cereal_Partners/Shreddies/1950s/1/1.html

Those data rings from the end-of-promotion mail-away, are very hard to find!

R is for Regular Rubber Rampage!

Eraserbots and Erasersaurs, two of my favourite side-subjects, oozing childhood memories, Christmas spirits and Nostalgia by the handful! As a follow-up to the Charity shop Dinosaur pencil-rubbers, and as a draw-up to Jon Attwood's latest, huge donation, we are going to have a bit of a Saurian season for a day or two!

Today we're looking at those which have come in recently, mostly Charity Shops or donations, and it was three lots, but as we'll see, it is now four, I think! Of which these are the most numerous, and we've probably seen some of them before, Hong Kong marked copies of the Diener poses, or based on them, the other closely related set are 'China' marked.

 

Mostly reasonable sculpts, for what they are, but the green one has a definite Godzilla vibe going-on down that spine, and I'm not sure about the Cycloceratops (or Uniceratops?) bottom right (common for that species with this material), or the stretching brown Arzach at the rear!

 

These I think we've seen twice, under different branding (Asda and Paperchase (now defunct)), so just a loose trio, for colour variations if I haven't already got them? I'm going to have to go through the 'eraser' Tag soon, adding Dinorasers, or Erasersaurs, to all the relevant posts to seperate them from other eraser posts and get them all on one Tag!

 

The Charity shop ones again, the blue chap (or chapess) won't stand up, so I have to lean it against another, each time!

 

Comparison shot of similar pairs across the three lots which have recently come-in, the new charity ones are a mixed bag, with three blobby ones and three quite good sculpts . . . but when I was putting them away, I noticed . . . 

 

. . . the kerthunkasaurus is actually in two parts, which after a quick inspection . . . 

 

. . . revealed that I had three each from two sources, with the two-part dino's being better sculpted, larger models of smaller dinosaurs, while the other three are mini's of larger or 'box scale' animals, which we have seen before, again under more than one brand (The Works and Poundland), as both capsule-type and six-to-a-card toys, respectively.

F is for Follow-Up - MPC GI's

I was putting away all the nice things from Brian Berke, and I found the bag of MPC bits which have come in over the last year or two, and picked one of each, old & new, 54-and-60mm and took a line-up for the family album!

 

I also checked with the original post on the subject, and except for a couple of the above pale-green 54mm's, they are all new colours or poses, or colour of an existing pose, and as I thought, the four darker-olive ones here (from Brian) are all additions!

 

The other day I mentioned the similarity between some of the European gum-premium figures (Americana, Boomer, Dunkin, Mundi, Ola and/or whoever including Montaplex piracies!) bore a close resemblance to the MPC figures, and as you can see - the proof of the pudding is in the eating, or just seeing! Even down to the AT-rocket in the dust/mud by the bazooka-man's knee.

H is for How They Come in - Charity Shops Again!

I picked up a couple of bags, just after the last post on the subject, then managed to find a couple more shots I'd missed (which aren't in the big folder of stuff waiting), so here's a few bits, some of which we may have seen before?

 

Two-quid for a very mixed bag, several of which pieces will go back to a different charity shop in the next donation from me, but from which a few useful pieces were sorted into the collection, and well look at the better pieces below.

 

The dinosaurs will feature in a forthcoming post on erasersaurs, for that is what I think they are! The two lady bears are 'In My Pocket' toys from Morrison, while the red stuff is a right old mix, Nabisco Dougal, the unknown premium elephant we looked at years ago next to the Kellogg's-Raja-Dunkin ones and a bear previously shelfied in pastel shades as Baby Shower rack toys, AND found in the street in yellow plastic.

 

The ball, soft-foam, which is increasingly turning-up in these mixed lots, is from some rival to Nerf Guns, which I did see the name of the other day, but forgot to note!

I picked this up because it was cheap, and the basket was undamaged (along with all those ears!), so it was a rather fine example of a new name - Avon 'Forest friends' - for both the Tag list and the A-Z blogs - eventually! Probably meant to post it at Easter, may have, but found these images anyway!

 

The other recent bag - I seem to have veritable herds of these in dozens of sizes, sets, plastic types, because obviously it was a very successful movie, and got heavily covered, even until now, and I will have to sit down at some point in the future, and sort them all out, for a proper ID session/disambiguation post! Disney's Frozen!

 

While this was a 50p purchase a year or two ago which we may have had here, real borderline as far as taking the term 'figural' goes, but fun, and the sort of home-made stuff gift-shops still carried when I was a kid and Hong Kong's tsunami of polymer had barely started to flow!

B is for Before & After - Cleaning!

Quick one from the photo-archive, the Auburn Rubber half-track, before and after cleaning, the lighting also changed slightly, but I think the job still shows itself to have been a good-un!

Not terribly realistic/true-to-life, but better than Marx's efforts, and around 1:48th scale? Manufactured from a synthetic PVC-rubber, rather than the earlier vulcanised tapped-rubber, of which Auburn had done a few military vehicles, but not a half-track, I think Sun Rubber did a very crude vulcanised half-track?

 

I put a little touch of WD40 on the axles too (hidden carpet-wheels behind the track-units), just to stop them getting any worse, after I'd given them a wet-polish with a bit of wire-wool, while it was in the sink for its once-in-a-blue-moon valet!

K is for Kitchenalia!

All sorts of stuff has come out of the woodwork, or the kitchen cabinets over the last three years, some I've photographed, some has gone to storage, some went to charity and some went in the bin. Here's three pieces of kitchenalia which may trigger the odd nostalgia button or two?

 

I can half-remember the birthday party where these were used, and they were 'dead posh' and modern, bring plastic rather than waxed-paper/card (how times have changed!), but it has left them brittle. They did have matching Magic Roundabout paper plates and napkins/serviettes, and I think the cake was Mum's rendition of Dougal dog!

 

Every 1970's kid appreciated a curly-wurly drinking straw, didn't they? I think they did, even if they didn't admit it! I seem to recall these were Christmas stocking presents one Christmas morning, and would have been christened with milk or tea . . . possibly milk with food-dye in it, as "It's Christmas"!

Kiddy cutlery, the cat was usually mine, the snoopy was my Brother's and I think we shared the Disney knifes, depending upon who grabbed which first! I should find some kid/s to pass them on to, but all my friends' kids have grown-up and gone to collage! Maybe a hospice for kids would be a thought?

H is for How They Come In - Brian, Two of Two

Which is really post number three of the lovely things Mr. Berke sent to the Blog for me to share. And we will start with the other mystery suprise, and again we need an ID on these new to hobby-collection-Blog figures!

Who are these lovely ladies? Approximately 54mm, and two being more realistic (on the left), two a little cartoony (right-hand pair), really loud colour, but from whence and whom have they come?

 

If they were found here, I would assume a kids comic/magazine, they all have something on them these days (forthcoming posts, but I don't watch them like I used to when Dr. Who Adventures was giving away figures regularly!), but they've come from America, and I don't know if they have the same type of kids magazine freebies . . . Interesting figures though, and totally new to me?

 

Basically we've got: Dancer Babe, Royal Babe (fairy-tales for the use of), Superbabe and Rock-Chick Babe!

 

Equally, loud colours for these MTC carded rack-toy party favours, and probably quite recent production as they are sub-copies of common sculpts doing the rounds and probably seen here before in more 'normal' greens and khakis, but I prefer these dudes!

 

In with the micro-smallies we looked at the other day, were a whole bunch of other kit figures and these are they, I won't say much as they are all going to need a major session at some point in the future, but I think the two astronauts (top right) are Revell (1:48th kit?), while the six dark greenies are old-school from the 1950's.

The sandy-coloured panzermann and girl might be Heller or Italeri, they both included interesting figures, suitable for dioramas in their kits? While the two white pilots (bottom right) might be Cylons or Earthmen from 1980's Sci-Fi kits?

I know, I should save them for Pirate day, but I feel donations should be fully covered, I used to do highlights but when everything is this good? And these are all interesting, the lower - black - figures (poor shot I'm afraid) are the Toy Major originals, and they look bigger that the various copies we seen so far (we may have seen one or two of these?), so a decent comparison article of the three or four sets will be a definite feature here one day, but they are all in storage at the moment, so it may be a while.

 

While the yellow line-up are the Imperial ones I've been after for ages now, reduced-size copies of the larger Hing Fat figures, these are from the two-adversary sets, we have seen here as shelfies before, possibly from Brian, and I've now tracked down the Police & Skeletons, Zombies & GI's (ex-Tim Mee GI's) and these Pirates fought red Ninjas which I may still be looking for?

 

The base mark.

Now . . . MPC armaturtoise! Clearly marked, and I will have to go back and check those blue & green ones I picked up at the last London show, as I carefully avoided calling them MPC, and just said probably premiums, as I wasn't sure, and they didn't seem to be marked, but I'll check, and a new colour anyway!

Speaking of colours, there are nice, common-enough copies of Airfix Indians, but in an unusual colour way, and like a lot of the rack-toy figures in the stash, overdue for a sorting, I have ID'd several sets and makers for them, but it's a question of tying colours and base types to downloaded and catalogue images of sets!

Marked Hong Kong, and another genre needing a better sort one day, these may be the ones issued by Payton, but I think they went with other colours, copies of MPC's figures and seem to be limited to 5 poses only?

This is what Brian sent all the micro-figures in, and it's a carry case for C-in-C micro-amour, which was fitting for all those diminutive figures, but my first example of packaging, or C-in-C anything, so cleaned and saved!

And to wrap-up, some proper rack-toy army men, not some people's cup of tea I know, but they will all get sorted one day, and a lot of them will get some kind of definitive attribution, so the more, the merrier!

 

Again, I can't thank Brian enough for all this, there are some real treasures here, as well as in the two previous lots, and I'm very grateful. I hope you've enjoyed them too, and if anyone ID's those heliotrope-pink figures in the first shot, they'll be doing better than the 'group experts' elsewhere!

H is for How They Come In - Brian, One of Two

I was trying to get them all in one post, but it wasn't going to happen, even with collaging, so I've split them sort of equally! A lovely parcel came from Brian Berke in New York about a month ago, and it was full of lovely things - you may recall we looked at the micro/space stuff the other day - and, of which these are the first half of the larger stuff.

 

 We're going to start with one of the real mystery suprises . . . my first thought with these was 'Flipper' the TV show (some Larami rack toy from the 1970's), because of the two dolphins (did Flipper have a mate?), but the characters just don't match, and these look much younger/newer, although they could just be clean and un-played-with?

 

But we have a girl (Flipper has two lads) who looks to be in medieval clothes, or 1950's snow-garb, she could even be a page-boy 'he', or a young (and poorly sculpted?) cheer-leader? With her is a ground-crewman of some kind (helicopter, carrier-deck?) and mechanic/sunbather/daydreamer, who's possibly the poorest sculpt?

They seem to have come along with some standard 'rack-toy' GI's copied from Airfix and more seventies in look and feel. Indeed, I did seperate them, but realised subtle changes of shade of the plastic colour were in both bags, so the soldier's bag is rolled up and placed in the character's bag, suggesting I'm not 100% either way, but don't want to seperate them until I know for sure!.

Now, come-on guys and gals . . . who knows what about these, someone must know something? That there are colour variations suggests quite a production run, and whether they were made last month or forty years ago, someone must know something? It's quite a hard polyethylene or nylon'y polymer? Can anyone help ID these, they need to be in the Tag list correctly!

 

5-5-24 - Brain himself came up with the answer the next day! But it took me a while to get a shot and wait for it to disappear from the sales site! They are Marx, from a late Dunby-Combex/Burbank era playset, Undersea Adventure, from about the same time as those odd, carded, 'shelf' vehicle rack-toys, or the late Guns of Navarone photo-art boxings. These khaki ones are reissues. I believe the vehicle stared in a few space playsets as well!

There were a nice bunch of flats, a couple of poses are similar to those ascribed elswhere to Cracker Jacks, particularly the bucking cowboy and baseball hitter, but they are not the same, and the [sports?] shooter too, while the ones in the larger image have the same bases as some Cracker Jacks, the others don't, so some other source maybe? The boxing kangaroo's "Put-em-up put-em-uuuuuup!" suggest an Australian connection?

 

I've divided them up (and photographed them) in three lots according to those bases, with the vehicles having quite angular ends, the bulk ovoid or 'cartouche' bases, and the other two figures something in-between, I suspect they all go together, but it helps to identify differences at the start rather than later!

We love paratroopers here, we love paratroopers in donation parcels! And this quite large one, is a different version, again, of one we've seen here before on more than one occasion, with quite high production values and a very small Hong Kong mark in the parachute case/bag.

These are US Cereal premiums, given away with Nabisco's Rice Honeys, and apparently manufactured by MPC, each has its name on it and there are some less common ones among them, and they are biggish with the Oarfish at 140mm/5½ inches, that's about half-a-banana, for some Faceplant readers! Clockwise from the flying fish;

• 17 FLYING FISH 20 IN
• 6 MANTA RAY 20 FT
• 17 NEEDLE FISH 5 FT
• 5 PORCUPINE FISH 5 FT
• 4 OAR FISH 30 FT
• 18 SAWFISH 20FT
• 3 GREAT WHITE SHARK 21 FT
• 9 BARRACUDA 10 FT

Ten feet? Ten phuqing feet? That's more than fifteen bananas! I thought barracuda were slightly-vicious, angry-salmon things you could punch on the nose, I don't think I'm ever going in the sea again . . . they come in herds, you know! Yes, there are two 17's?

 

Three lovely, full-on 54mm-compatible fantasy figures which I haven't found on Shaun's site yet and don't recognise, but they look a bit Tolkien'esque? So possibly a recent knock-off, although by recent, one has to remember how quickly the last 22-years have sped-by!

Lido Wild West, and originals, not the slightly insipid pastel ones from Hong Kong I have somewhere, so useful additions for future comparison shots, a modern AWI figure (Accurate/Revell or Imex?) and two very interesting copies of the M-Toy/Marty (Maymoon) barbarians, but in a smaller size, fantastic!

I can't remember who the big guy kneeling with the radio is, Marx, Ideal, or late Aurburn? But the others are the larger size of MPC, and are very useful as I have a few that are darker and lighter greens or metallic blue and silver, so these mid-olive green ones are a nice addition.

 

You know I struggle to thank these guys enough for these donations, and the best thanks is to share them enthusiastically with the rest of you, but many, many thanks to Brian, there are some real treasures above, and more to come, which, if I can blurb them up in the next hour or so, I'll schedule to publish for 9:30 our time (GMT).

And can anyone ID the dolphin 'playset' figures?

P is for Polotoys

Another set of old 28/30mm role-play gaming-figure, or similar knock-off's, you can see how they would have gone well together as a pair mid-posting on the 31st of last month, but, there you go, I totally lost sight of them in the bottom centre of my desktop, where I'd left them to remind me they were there - hey-ho!

Polotoys seem to have been incorporated in 1985, and share the Blue Box building in Hong Kong, so may well be another branding of Tai Sang, but they haven't got enough of a presence online to dig that deep, more of a straight marketing 'brand mark', than one with board-members and press-releases etc., . . . one supposes?

 

Similar to some Games Workshop stuff, and you may recognise the MB Games poses from Heroquest (also GW in a roundabout way, Citadel?) but again I think there will be other names in the frame as the victims of the plagiarism!

As per the Blue Box Japanese yesterday, I seem to have had two photo-shoots! The pink dragon is a bee-eye-tee-cee-haitch to photograph, and I know I have one or two more somewhere, as I shot a different one (unknown at the time) in a comparison shot a few years ago.

 

The horses, possibly based on the old Nottingham Mafia poses, but so simplified as to be new sculpts! And with no rider in the Polotoys set, I tried the Toy Major one, and he does a fine job of filling in, a tad too big for the mount maybe, but . . . it's fantasy, and it's probably a Steppes pony!

While this comparison with some DFC (Dimensions For Children) daemons, gives a good idea of the size which is heading toward 54mm. As always Shaun has all of it here, with packagings, the Schilling set is very interesting as the 'H' branded Deetail clones have been linked to Kwong Wah in the last few weeks (subscribe to Plastic Warrior magazine), which would mean the contents have been bought-in from more than one source.

News, Views Etc . . . PW 2024!

I haven't had that many 'News, Views' this year, just been too busy, but the all important one is in now and it's good news . . . Plastic Warrior's show for 2024 has a confirmed date!

That is all!