S is for Sawyer's Bespin Cloud-car . . . Not!

Twin fuselage craft go back at least as far as the weirder output and ideas of the German aircraft maker Blohm und Voss and others, of the Nazi era, and any real resemblance to the international-orange cloud cars serving the floating city's of the planet Bespin, in a galaxy far-far-away and long-long ago, is purely coincidental, not least because this probably predates both the Movie, and possibly the birth of its Director!

Sawyer's of Viewmaster fame are believed to be behind this superb piece of pulp sci-fi' made solid, in a chunk of polystyrene (or even a Bakelite material?) with four lenses, sorry - engines and pilot/gunner's windows! Because, when it's not being a spaceship, it's a pair of not very effective, novelty binoculars!

 

The decoration revealing its twin-use directive are simple 'panel lines', raised on the surface, above we have what I think is the top, with two cockpits laid-out at the fat (front?) end, and a hint of tailplanes raised at the thin ends. Four cannon holes or ray-gun/laser-ports are lined-up along the leading edge of the connecting airplane/wing.

So, it's a ground attack/support fighter-bomber, in the tradition of the Mosquito, Lightning, Black Widow or Beaufort! The underside (or what I consider the underside) has similar surface detailing for folded landing wheels, bomb-bay doors and tail-wheel cabinets, along with the call sign/identifier PF-939 (for Plastic Fighter?).

 

The lenses have been wedged-in under pressure, to get stuck-fast against more raised lines of polymer, and I'm thinking, if I use a rubber mat and wooden dowel, I may be able to get them all out to clean the interior, and polish the lenses, but that's for another day!

 

Two holes in the outer winglets are for a neck-cord/strap, but the cord that came with it wasn't long-enough to go over a five-year-old's head, so even if it was original it got removed as a rather stained and dirty remnant, beyond the stores required, going forward!

 

At 40/45mm it's a single or twin-seater?

But at smaller scales it could have a crew of six or more, and looks like a serious piece of intergalactic war-kit, with a busy maintenance schedule, when back on Terra Firma! I phuqing love this stuff!

I wonder if George Lucas had one?

Z is for Ziggurat!

Well, I wouldn't have bored you will my travails over the last few days, you don't want to tip your 'eemies' off, but suffice to say a cancer scare has been downgraded to a 'phew', with a slightly ominous "Get it checked if it doesn't go away" caveat. Anyway, to celebrate my lighter mood this evening, here's one of the odder things in the kit catalogues of the 1960's, Imai's M2000T SF Ziggurat, is it a plane . . . yes! Is it a tank . . . yes, is it a SAM-missile T.E.L., yes! Is it goddamned-barking-mad? You betcha!

I've actually been looking for it for several years, but I thought it was in one of the UPC catalogues and when I couldn't find it there, I was stumped, but it just turned-up in a smaller AHM one!

 

It seems to be a mash-up of Imai's Scud-A ('Missile tank BB3' tracks and road-wheels), some Thunderbirds elements and their own fictional SAM 5 rocket launcher parts, so probably around 1:24th scale . . . 'ish! Relatively clip-together, and you can have one for less than 2,000-quid;

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/404657806927

 

I don't normally like linking to evilBay stuff, as it doesn't tend to hang-around long, after it's sold, these days, but I think this may remain a hot-link for some time, unless there's an idiot out there keen to be parted from his money! And $4.98, would be the best part $45 today, a lot of money?

M is for Micro Toy Box

I know one or two other people have covered these either on Blogger or elsewhere, and, to a certain extent, that is the nature of covering new or current production, but that doesn't mean they don't need to go here, if only as a box-ticker!

I only became aware of these when they were on clearance at Aldi, about a year-and-a-half ago, and bought these three, at about a fiver each, as they all had at least one figure! And I had intended to leave it there; a fun sample.

 

This is the Rock'Em Sock'Em Robot (originally a Marx toy, but for many years owned by Mattel), reduced to about 25mm! The green one being a 'common' item in the set, the red adversary was also available as a 'rare', and I think I did end-up with one, but we'll get on to that!

 

Under the card you get four more 'blind' toys, each actually in a blind bag, so no cheating, but a mountain of waste on a dying planet? I'm guessing the line didn't do that well, as in some jurisdictions, window sets of 10, 15 or 20 items were issued, where most (6,10 or 14) were unpacked and visible, with only a few (4, 5 or 6) 'blinded' behind a graphics card.

 

The three top/visible items in that first purchase. about a dozen of the items in the first series were figural, and most had a balance or 'oppo', but I guess the original idea was not to get them out and add them to your Airfix soldiers, but keep them as minis!

One of the weirder aspects of the Aldi ones was that the insert card contained instructions on how to reverse the card so you could use the tubs as a unitary display system; a stack of little clear cabinets!

This being on the outside of the insert. But, "Hold on?" I hear the brighter of you asking, there's a side missing anyway, why would you need to turn in, to hide the artwork? But then you'd be displaying the instructions for the display faff, on the two wings, so you'd need to fold them out of the way too, and . . . and . . . it really doesn't make much sense? Not only that, but I think the point was that the blank side was supposed to have a sticker on it, hence 'turn' and 'reverse'?

 

In the event, they put stickers on all four sides, not only that but A) on the inside faces of the tub, and B) the type of paper stickers which will be a bugger to remove without a lot of effort, mess and the intervention of a solvent? The whole thing was a nonsensical daftness which clearly hadn't been thought through, or executed properly, by anyone in design, marketing or the art department?

 

The blind bags themselves give no clue as to the contents.

 

As it happened, they were then - in the run-up to Christmas '22 - further reduced to something like £2.50, to clear the stillage for the next bargain, and sorting through them to remove those which had been raided, I bought the lot! As a result, I had a fair few duplicates, not least these Hot Wheel cars (also a Mattel brand), so I 'unboxed' some!

 

Which revealed also, another odd aspect of the 'stacking' instructions - three different box designs which didn't stack between designs, and with no lids, didn't really stack at all, with or without reversed card inserts, or removed stickers??? Actually 'stacking' like empty yogurt-pots - inside each-other!

Barbies, board-games, bears and other recognisable brands of our childhood were included in the series, and this is the contents of another tub. The board-games and other - originally closed-box - toys were represented by simple stickers around small polymer tiles.

 

A couple of the tubs went on the scanner, with dubious results in the 'success' field!

Contents of another tub, stacking hoops from Little Tikes (now MGA Entertainment), a bucket & spade, a Barrel of Monkeys (Lakeside-Milton Bradley-Hasbro), a rocking horse and an early Nerf gun. The monkeys are no more than about 8mm at the longest line.

 

The full line of the first series, I think, in the end, I managed to get everything except a Magic 8-Ball, but I ended up with a lot of tat, and while I meant to take more shots of the mini toys, they ended-up going to storage, and will have to wait for another day, but there's plenty on the Internet for those whose 'research' consists of hoovering up other peoples efforts.

 

And while I was relieved to get one or two Skeletors for my dozen-or-so He-Men, I was gutted when friend of the Blog, Tom Clague, posted his trio (with Teela) on Faceplant and alerted me to a second series!

And - of course - now I have to get the 'army men', who look to be marginally larger than the monkeys!

This second series, like the Horrible History figures from Worlds Apart, seem to have gone straight to a few dealers, suggesting that you need to know where the good trade-auctions are, if you want to get this stuff as a year-round earner, in your evilBay or Etsy shop! And with another Nerf and a Pepper Pig, some more modern brands are in there.

 

Branded to Super Impulse USA, but, with both Hasbro and Mattel to the fore as representations, licensing must have been a nightmare!

P is for Peter's Plunder - Highlights 2

The rest of the best! Everything else has been filtered into the temporary TBS storage here in the flat and will be used over time in thematic or comparison shots, or eventually, when I stop talking about it and get it done, the A-Z blog entries!

These were interesting, they are hard polystyrene, sub-scale copies of the Timpo GI's (and will need adding to the Khaki Infantry page at some point), probably from Poland, but could be Hungarian or Argentinian, or similar?

 

Four make-weights at the back, but in front is a totally new-to-me figure of a pioneer/SeaBee/mine-clearer, prone with shovel (or is he a combat latrine digger!), I'm guessing (even assuming!) he's from a small, modern play set, or window-box/die-cast vehicle type thing? Could he be from one of the Toy Story sets?

 

I found one of these while putting this one away, so we may have seen it before here, but no harm to see it again . . . imported by Tech H E Ltd., credited to a Just Play, but clearly actually Hasbro via 'Authentic Transformers'?

 

I may have these in storage, Turtle Stampers, they were in the TKMaxx subsidiary Home Bargains a while ago, and I remember trying to select two cards which had the maximum of poses and minimum duplicates, but I'm not sure if I bought them or left them on the peg, after a rare moment of budgetary common sense?

 

Not to scale, a whole bunch of mostly modern mechanics, road/construction workers and race crew, with the old Dinky example in grey 'styrene. Mike Blake shows a larger sample of the yellow ones in one of these new, generic crinkly-bag China sets in the latest issue of Plastic Warrior magazine (issue 193, pp.12), but doesn't mention the hollow-backs, I don't know if his examples are full-solids?

 

The racing champion, semi-flat, looks a bit like some of the farm stuff carried by Padgett Brothers (A-Z), so may be via-them, and while the decoration might be home-messing with paint-markers (there's a lot of it around these days), I suspect factory-paint?

 

To scale!

Cherilea (?) tree, Quaker Foods gladiator's horse and a jumping ghost.

Brilliant!

 

A bag from The Toy Project's shop in North London, much covered in the past and worth a visit if you're near, worth supporting in any event. A Papo pirate, two natives from the Playmates (?) King Kong sets, a Disney Princess and two farmworkers, along with a couple of interesting figures . . . 

. . . being the characters of Duke Kaboom and Combat Carl, both from the Toy Story franchise, and I believe both Toy Story 4? There are various iterations of Combat Carl (don't say GI Joe, they may sue, Evel Knievel's family/estate were threatening to?)*, what's fun is that they are sculpted as mini action-figures, complete with knee and elbow joints - so would make excellent action-figure props in a dolls house! Wheels within wheels, as pop eats itself!

 

*They did, they lost!

 

Many thanks to Peter for putting all this stuff to one side for me, and you, to enjoy!

P is for Peter's Plunder - Highlights 1

As I mentioned the other day, I don't tend to post-credit when geldt has crossed palms, but first, I know who gave me the contents of the bag, and second, I know they were cheapies, so we'll look at the highlights!

 

A couple of robo-dino-bots, similar to the pair of gift shop dragons carried by several branding's a few years (couple of decades?) ago, but still around, with the same black undercoat, heavy silver over-brushing and red eyes!

There's a post on these coming soon'ish I think, touristy horses, I spent years waiting for riders to appear, but it seems there weren't any, despite the Western/American saddlery?

 

Three American natives from Jean, the prone one is one of the slightly harder to find poses, but they are as common as Airfix readymades, on the continent, so it's all a bit relative!

 

Very strange manga/anime things with slightly animalistic faces, pre-pubescent teen bodies, angels wings, and a look of mischief about them! Possibly Wild Vibes Zombaes Forever dolls (some Netflix thing), but not the 8cm articulated action figures Google reveals, rather 54/60mm PVC solids - an earlier/capsule-toy line?

 

A bit infant'y, and probably going-on to charity, but they are fun if you like all this 'deforms' stuff, and marked-up to K&M/Wild Republic, so - box ticked! And the horses are less cartoony and could prove useful for spare mounts?

 

Kinder's Disney Fairies, I tried to get them to perform for the camera, but the petals kept falling out, or the fairies fell over, so, well, you get the idea, a similar set of 'Flower Fairies' has been issued recently as well!
 

Space! The lenticular goldfish-bowl-face is a new [to the collection] colour, the orange guy is Safari, I think the green one might be Ben Ten (and was another one who didn't want to stand up!), while the silver guy is an MPC copy, and the other two are mini-action figures from Hasbro, one a Star Wars 'Clone War' figure, the other possibly a GI Joe or something?

 

Loving the quirkiness of these, semi-flat, polyethylene, 'monochromatic' dinosaurs, what's not to like? The bases have channels in them which suggest they may attach to something else, but similar channels have been seen in other figures over the years (game playing pieces, IHC firefighters), so there may be a technical reason behind it.

 

More Kinder, and another fail to get a better display shot, but they are from several Barbie series I think, and as spares/to-be-sorted are a useful addition to my smaller sample. Oddly, several of them have pink knickers! But it's probably not that odd to a child and I'm just channelling the inherited residues of Edwardian uptightedness in the matter?

 

More Kinder (or Phidal in the case of the little blonde) capsule-type stuff.

More space! Seven of the LB (for Lik Be, of course!) astronauts, in their soft polyethylene iteration, probably the best surviving of the small scale versions, and posed with the Combex pencil sharpener. I've since learned there is a carpet-wheel version of the novelty, marked only 'B - 5 2 0'.