C is for Colorforms, Not!

Or; C is for Correcting Myths! A lot has been written about these around the Web over the last few years, and a fair bit of what has been written has given a certain type of evilBayer the idea that these are worth, three, five, ten-times what these recent, probably still current somewhere, 99p rummage-tray figures are actually worth!

Generic Space Attack set of all twelve, date unknown, but these have been around for a while, you get six spacemen/aliens/robot types and six space vessels, which happen to be six Colorforms knock-off's, and Thunderbird 1-5 clones with a space shuttle, it's the Colorforms connection which leads to the exciting pricing, but they are probably, actually knock-off's of the 1980's play-set knock-off's from Toyco's set, Alien Attack, where they were polyethylene mouldings, approximately 60mm against these 54mm PVC wobblers.

 

Brian Heiler's Video on the Canadian set

We then find them in the Archie McFee (Accoutrements) catalogue, circa 1996, I think, and they may have had a fancy box, or been sent-out in a plain carton or header-carded bag? Now called Alien & Spaceship Invasion, you are still getting all twelve, despite the caveats in the description, I suspect you got one of each moulding.

 

But in 1998, the six spaceships are issued in a boardgame, sans figures, Aristoplay's futuristic Mars 2020 (how far away 2020 must have seemed to them in 1998!) which must - if it was a single tool - have left a lot of extra figures kicking around in some Chinese warehouse, looking for a buyer . . . 

 

 

. . . which was found, with Ruestes in Argentina,  and their Star Attack line, which consisted of lager boxed sets, which had the figures and a larger toy, not the spaceships, although the spaceships were included in smaller sets and carded blisters, some with other toys, some with a five 'Colorforms'/'Thunderbirds' assortment.

 

Spanish language video of the Ruestes sets

So, we've been attacked, invaded and explored by Aliens, Stars, Space, Spaceships and Mars, and I suspect, somewhere, in some wholesaler's or toy-chain's territory we are still being attacked by these cheapo' knock-off's, I know there's a French seller, who seems to be selling a lot of them, lose, which he appears to have got as a job-lot and broken-down . . . cake decorations? Bazaar figures? Wait 'till you see them cheap in a 99p rummage-tray, is my advice!

News, Views Etc . . . Colchester Museums Are Go!

Coincidentally running from my Birthday, although I've only just learnt of it, until the 30th June, so still plenty of time to get up there and have a look;

Everything else you need to know is here;

https://colchester.cimuseums.org.uk/events/joy-of-puppetry/

And, better late than never! Sorry, missed the activity weekend!

RF is for Rene Fisher

I'm on a long-run at work, which tends to build fatigue, so last night, instead of posting something here, I watched old clips of '8-out-of-10-cats...' on Faceplant, then went to bed! And this is only really a quickie, and seen elsewhere a while ago, but interesting nevertheless!

Pretty sure this is Rene Fisher or RF, from France, and some kind of touristy/keepsake thing, which would have had a waterslide transfer with a town or navel port (Marseilles?)'s name on it, it's all 'styrene except the little aluminium tags which keep the figures on the thing, and, from the number of holes, it's fair to assume there were other contents/layouts, and probably, originally, different towns depicted/named?

 

It's missing a couple of bars to the gate, but I have an old pack of Slater's window-bars somewhere, which I'm hoping with provide a nice, neat mend at some point? And - of course - it's another sentry box!

I believe the chap in the front left corner is also RF, but, like the two late'ish Starlux next to him, is apparently an French Alpine soldier, not a sailor! They are joined by three lead hollow-casts and the Argentinian ALB rubber chap, we've since seen cleaned-up here at Small Scale World, for an all-blue line-up!

 

Those alpine troops again!

A is for Alphagraphics, Brumtrams, Howard Scenics, MA Arts, Nimbus, S&D, Streetscape and others, and errr . . . Follow-up!

We had a couple of items from this stable (MA Arts) in one of the card bus posts over the Christmas season, and another (Nimbus) in Brian Berke's follow-up submission, then I found I'd missed the Alphagraphics folder, only to notice that the multi-brand 'thing' I had pointed-out in the blurb, went further, and it seems Aphagraphics were the print-arm, and sort of central HQ for a whole-bunch of after-market and 'garage' producers through the 1980/90's.

 

I really can't be arsed to go back and add what would be both complicated and duplicate notes to those two posts, so I'll just add all the brands to this post as Tags, add Alphagraphics to the existing Nimbus post and then both the other posts will appear with these in future searches, as relevant!

1:43rd scale (Märklin's standard O-Gauge is 1:43.5) stuff, as well as HO-OO, resin and whitemetal products, as well as card/paper, it's your one-stop shop for scene-enhancing, limited production or esoteric subject-matter, civilian/model railway stuff!

 

Omen . . . geddit? O-gauge men! And the second time that particular play on words has been used in the hobby I think, or am I confusing it with Keymen?

 

Alternate packaging, remember we've already seen the larger sheets and the post-cards, decent model railway shops used to have this stuff hung, stacked or stuffed into every corner of the shop, and we'll never be able to list them all, as some were produced by the guy down the lane, who only came in with new stock a couple of times, before he "...sort of disappeared from the hobby"!

 

Another catalogue.

Single-deckers and smaller minibuses.

Modern double-deckers

More historical models or liveries.

It's very hard for me to produce much blurb on things I know so little about, beyond getting it up here so it's not lost to the Internet generation, but if anyone does know more, perhaps they can enlighten the rest of us in the comments, not because I'm begging for comments, that's other-people's shtick, but because if it isn't passed-on, it's lost.

M is for Micro Minis

We did a bit of an overview on these micro-mini's a couple of years ago, and Ed Berg has recently done a season on his, and there's not a lot to add here beyond eye-candy, for now, and hopefully nothing to tread on Ed's toes, but Brian sent several nice lots of the integral-wheel teenies for us to look at.

These are lovely, because despite having most of the AFV's, 'Planes and ships/vessels, all of which we have seen here, I had none of them! They are the MPC Mini's, and these are roughly one-each of the various makes from the lot, in which the full sample was bigger, and the duplicates were all different colours. I'm not sure how I ended up with a hole in the middle, but I kept adding and moving around to get a nice looking shot, and must have spotted a late duplicate and not replaced it!

 

Of interest is that the Jeep, Mini-Clubman ('Morris') and old crock seem to be in a different scale/style, and might indicate more than one master sculptor behind the set? Also, the old crock (a Packard) gave rise to a copy which keeps popping-up as a Christmas cracker toy or gum-ball capsule-machine prize!

And, while we're looking at them, I will repeat the call made several times now on the Blog over the last fifteen-or-so years, for the whereabouts or a contact for Bob Maschi (or his heirs), whose MPC Mini's guide, bound, sits with my Tim Geppert and and George Kerton originals, (all a bit black & white, and a bit dated now, but well-loved), as I do still owe him for it!

 

A mix of Lido, Empire and/or Acme? As Ed was pointing out the other week, it's not necessarily clear (see below) so, for now, just nice little cars and things! I love the bulldozer, it's small-enough to be an Engineers' vehicle with micro-armour!

 

Real wheels! Behind are three of the Tootsie Toy mini die-casts, there were similar lines from Marx, and someone in Hong Kong, and when we were very young my Brother's godmother, who lived in California gave him a little suitcase full of them, I can't remember which lot they were, but the jeep was different - if memory serves - a sharper, squarer moulding, and it had a seperate, weeny trailer!

 

In front are what I initially thought were game-playing pieces, but actually the red one is a different sculpt, a two-seater, so they may be a similar line to the Tootsie Toys, but older, lead slush-casts? Turning to O'Brian (8th edition) gives me Barclay, CAW/C&H or Kansas as likely culprits, but no direct match?

 

Comparison between the two Jaguar's in the parcel, MPC Mini on the left Tootsie Toy on the right, back when we (Britain) made some of the best automobiles in the world! I think they are both representing the racing D-Types?

 

While this illustrates the problems in trying to attribute these, the cream-white wreaker has 'wheels' and a sharp, clearly delineated hook, the chocolate-brown one has 'wheel fairings' and a less obvious hook, and the red one (which came in with a lot not seen on the Blog yet), polyethylene, is a poorer copy of the 'edible' colour Hong Kong ones Brian sent years ago, which we saw last time. And I can only assume they are in the order they were copied from each other!

 

So, that's the end of Brian's parcel, five posts worth of lovely, useful, interesting things, gap-fillers and new questions, thanking him greatly for all of it, but as we're finishing on micro-mini's, I forgot to include in that September '22 overview (above link) another sample, sent to the blog by a Scandinavian reader . . .

 . . . whose subsequent submission to the blog is also being held over, as I really can't bring myself to promote Russia, or things Russian until Putler's dead, or we know the outcome of the current barbarism in Ukraine. Nor do I have any time for those traitorous, anti-democratic fuckwits, who do. It's about principles - you either have them or you don't.

 

But these are northern European cereal premiums, in the style of various others, or all these moulded-in-wheel mini's, although there only seem to be two mouldings here, a VW Beetle and what might be another Jaguar, a Riley or Austin Healy, which seems improbable? And I'm no expert!

So apologies for not posting them last time (it all gets posted in the end!), and many thanks to him and Brian for everything. Because the MPC Mini's need a good clean, which I haven't got round to yet, and all need to be ID'd better, we'll probably return to them in a short while, with the other bits that have come in?

J is for Johnnie Walker

The iconic 'Striding Man' logographic has been used to market the 200-year-old whisky brand since 1908, now owned by drinks giant Diageo, the walker was commissioned by another; Sir Alexander Walker, the grandson of the eponymous Johnnie Walker and is counted as one of the earliest corporate marketing mascot/symbols.

 

Marx produced several of these figural mascots, as 'toy' figures, in different scales, presumably as presentation pieces, or some kind of promotional freebie? We've seen the Dewar Highlander from White Lable whisky, as a small scale one (30mm) here I think, back at the start of the Blog, while the 60mm one needs his ceremonial mace fixed before he appears here, but this is the Johnnie Walker, in the same style and probably from the same Hong Kong factory as the Warriors of the World, hard polystyrene, factory-painted figures, and there is a 30mm scaked-down version too.

The latest version has been plagiarised by the Right-wing misogynist 'Proud Boys', Trump's storm troopers, although the brewer is threatening to take them to court. I also have a lead semi-flat (from Britains - I think) somewhere, so one day I'll try to do them all in one post!

16th - Brain Berke has sent his, so he can go here, I've cropped him out of a larger image which has left him a bit pixelated, but you get the idea, and he's reputed to be supplied by Britains, as a 35mm, solid lead/tin, semi-flat.

T is for Two - Marx Fort Bits

A couple of bits I scanned last night while looking for other things, and while I could have sworn we'd seen this first one here already, I can't find it under the 'Marx', 'Forts', 'Paper' or 'Cardboard' Tags, so I must have posted it on Faceplant and then lost it somewhere?

No matter, fresh scan, these actually look a bit flimsy against the card building kits Britains was doing around the same time, but that may have something to do with scale, they are a bit larger, and are probably unique to Marx Swansea and the UK? A fort and Hospital, scaled for the Playpeople (Playmobil under licence), and it's interesting that in the blurb they are called 'Little People' which was actually a Fisher Price thing.

 

For years, I'd never encountered these or their remnants in the wild, so, wondered if they were they ever issued, this is from the 1978 catalogue, and '76-80 (the same years the Playpeople were available) is what you might call the interregnum, no; 'drawn-out death', with Dunby-Combex at the helm, and while some stuff did get out, it was all a bit hit-and-miss? However, I have now/since seen them on evilBay, so they did happen!

 

At a figure-height of 7.5cm things made for Playmobil could/can be used with larger toy soldiers and model figures.

Just the scan of the instructions for the Miniature Masterpiece forts, which we looked at here. It's a bit tatty, but might be useful to print out, if you're selling one without an instruction sheet?

15th - I did find it and it is now Tagged-up the same as this one, so it's now on the Blog twice, but that's just how it rolls sometimes!

A is for Army Men, From America!

Actually there's all sorts in Brian's parcel, but we're starting with two absolutely classic 'Army Men', bagged rack-toy types! After which, it's quite a space/sci-fi themed bundle this time!

So these are they, a new'ish set of Matchbox GI copies, from Japan? And the MTC set Brian had previously sent us, and becasue the figure mix in this second sample was not so hot (four running guys), I open the other for a better look below, and will keep this as the 'mint bagged' sample.

 

But first, back to the Japanese firm, it has a US arm in California, but is, I would suggest, a sign of changing habits, globally, as America (and by association - Hasbro, Mattel and Tomy-Takara - the rest of us), wean themselves (ourselves) off Chinese product? Daiso, therefore, possibly being the van of more to come?

 

Strangely, scanning the card and shooting the figures close-up, then bring the two images together without a borderline, has produced a collage which is better than the shots of the whole item, which were troubled by reflections!

Isn't it ironic?!! The one figure, missing from the bag I opened, is in the other bag four times! One of each, with most taken from the bag Brian sent last time, they are, on one level, trash, but equally, are 'proper' TOY soldiers, and kids love this stuff, big enough to take to the beach (70mm) plus, and as valid in my collection as anything else!

 

A sample of the 'Army Women' from BMC, they are every bit as fun as they looked when first announced (here actually!) back in August 2019. What I like is that most of them are aping the old Tim Mee cold-war figure poses, but as women, nothing sexualised, just soldiers who are women, and these are the best colour to have - cheers Brian!

 

Three Mexican copies/reissues of the old Mark 60mm spacemen, I have a growing sample of these now, you may recall Peter sent a pink one . . . orange? I think he was orange, a while ago, and I do have some older ones too.

This is the whole line-up, I think this is an early guide from The Toy Soldier Company, although it's called a Toy Soldier Guide, and as I said, I have various others in both a darker metallic-blue and a paler metallic blue-grey, which all seem original, along with some grey reissues I think, all helmetless, but the helmet which came with the orange one is different to that issued with the grey ones anyway!

 

Brian also sent a nice sample of the MPC astronauts (one of each pose here, there were more), in red, white and blue (very patriotic!), which I needed, as I have the LB (for Lik Be, obviously!) copies, from late MPC sets in HO, with this colour way, along with those Nasta Industries copies in the same three colours, but otherwise had only the gold-orange-yellow ones from the XL5 boxed set.

 

Here's a quick comparison with the silver one Peter Evans sent the other day, and serves as a presage to a forthcoming article with a wider look at these figures, from various sources.

These are interesting, and I'd love to know more, if only so I can label the bag! They look like Pokémon, mostly after transformation, but are unmarked, so even if they are Pokémon, will be unlicensed, but I suspect either a rival product, or a total knock-off line, possibly from capsule dispensers?

While this is awesome! We've seen them before, Peter has sent me two lots over the years and I found a bunch myself, which have been covered here on several occasions, so I've left them in the bag for now, but I am looking for a flat-topped cake at some point, for a full parade! They are cake decorations and based on Britains 'Eyes Right', but scaled down, and quite exquisite, and there's 40-odd in the bag, so a major parade is calling.

However, I grabbed this shot off of that evilBay a while ago, and it shows little boxes that allow them to be used without a cake, by receiving the cake spikes. It's the only time I've ever seen them, so don't know if they are original accessories, or something an owner has fashioned from something else (and I have shots somewhere of them in cake decoration packs without the cubes), but it's worth looking out for a few.

 

You may recall Peter mounted some of his in pairs on old Timpo bases! I will need to scratch-build at least one bass drum, which has never turned-up and doesn't seem to have been made as part of the set?

Thanks again to Brian for all these, it's the extensions, connections and 'further's, which make these donations so useful, and as I say, we'll expand on the MPC spacemen in a day or two.