R is for Ravensburger's Rake of Role-Play Recreations!

And so to TKMaxx, where a relatively expensive (but cheaper than the toy shops) purchase (we buy this stuff so you don't have to) led to three board games currently on the seasonal displays, and all containing nice figure sculpts in that mid 40mm-50mm size bracket. Each licensed from a different studio.

 

From Universal Studios we have this game based upon the better known characters from the horror oeuvre, some of whom are not even Universal properties, but hey, who's nitpicking Hugh? From the left in the above line-up we have The Wolf Man, Dracula, The Creature from the Black Lagoon, 'Frankenstein and The Bride (obviously, actually - Frankenstein's monster!), The Mummy and the Invisible Man.

To which is added a sheet of card-flat 'standee' civilian victims/secondary players, I don't know for sure, as I haven't read the rules; I would hope by now, you know these game posts are about the figures, other Blogs do games better than I ever could! The coloured ones look like they could be used in Cludo!

The second game is from Warner Brothers, and takes us to the Emerald City via a pair of red shoes and a wicked witch! I was going to weave the Kansas gag in here, but it's on the box, which rather stole my thunder, there! I assume you don't need these Wizard of Oz characters identified, but they are quite accurate to the original movie, and Dorothy is carrying Toto!

Finally, a Disney vehicle gives us five named Gargoyles, a human helper and two baddies, reduced to standee flats! The Gargoyles are rather nicely done with little contrasting flecks in them to suggest stonework, while the human (Elisa) is flat red. You'd have to be a fan of the movie to ID the individuals, or read the rules properly, which - we've already established - I didn't do! But there's a Goliath, Brooklyn, Broadway, Lexington and Hudson, in there somewhere!

 

Feelin' blue - a sizer, with the Invisible Man, Dorothy and a Gargoyle, the Invisible man is touching 39mm with his base, the 'Monster' heading toward nearly 50-mil, but most are around 40/45mm. Out there now, two are £14.99, the other (Gargoyles?) £12.99.

P is for Pulp Fiction

How have I not had that title before now? I'm not sure if these are Giles's work from Dorset Toy Soldiers, or Ron's from Good Soldiers, but as they are the Crescent sculpts it's all a bit academic and I'll Tag all three, just to make sure they can be found, no matter how future browsers are searching for them! On the Dan Dare Tag you'll find a larger sample of these from Brian B which we saw a while back.

The reproduction label is actually quite faded on my sample, and I've enhanced it in Picasa, to give a better feel for the original, the trouble with home printers is that the ink fades quite quickly, as anyone who's put stuff up at work, or on the fridge door, will attest! The yellow tissue apes the yellow card the originals are often found tied-to.

 

Box is in Dorset's style, but the subject is more Good Soldier'y, while the contents are the same as the Crescent toys set. Colours are best described as the common schemes, with the suited Dan being also found in dark blue, sky blue, red, metallic red, a pinkish metallic, and silver, with the Treens also having a fair few paint variations in the original, in this version it's supposed to be the Venusian character Sondar.

Some sources state the sky blue were only from an RAF set (which they certainly appeared in), and which includes blue versions of the two green service dress figures (Digby and Dan), while others claim blue spacesuit for Dan and yellow for Sir Hubert Guest? With Professor Peabody also getting red and silver issues, I suspect it was down to the out-painters or packers, on the day, and of little other significance?

 

The ship could be all red, split red/yellow, or red with a silver nose in the original, here the repro' has a segment of yellow running back from the centre of the cockpit, and again the launch-frame follows Crescent's blue, although orange and brown-red can be found.

 

Red Wing! That's three mini/micro spaceships, joining the stash, in a few weeks with a rather Tin Tin'esque rubber rocket pencil-top and the little novelty UFO in polystyrene alongside the Dan Dare whitemetal ship.

S&S is for Scale and Size!

 Can you see what I did there! As well as our regular visits to the canyons of New York, there has been this for . . . about seven or eight years now, I think - the annual Christmas toy-related display by the Fleet & Crookham Local History Group in Fleet library, which this year is all about size/scale of like subjects.

Another 'lazy' post, in that it can be blurb-light, it is what it is! I would add that the FCLHG do other presentations through the year, local development, the medieval period, how the maps change, that kind of thing.

It's getting like we've seen most of it before, hence a different theme every year? I think the Furby's are new this year, they used to be called Gonk's, when I was a lad, and were made by Travellers on old loo-rolls for the fairground-prize trade. They were a good introduction to loss and death, as their little paper faces slowly dog-eared, ripped or even slid off, and eventually damp got to their cores or an adult's foot or arse flattened them!

 

The Exhibition normally comes down in the first or second week of January, so if you're passing, worth a quick visit.

S&S is for Sublime and Seasonal

Brian Berke, our roving reporter in New York, has come-up trumps again, with this year's Christmas flats from Scully & Scully's window display in that fair city. Fighting reflection, and retaking a few, it's an interesting lot, with some of the more whimsical ones we're used to, and one or two more Dickensian styled vignettes of older children doing more mundane or domestic tasks . . . Well, one, roasting nuts!

No blurb needed on these now, you know the drill!

My favourite I think, I like the allusion to the Nativity story!

Many thanks to Brian for these, and everything else he does for the blog, in the course of a year. I believe NY is pretty arctic at this time of year, so going into the street and releasing fingers to operate camera's is dedication! And it's only ten-days to the big event, so I'll wish you and yours, all a merry Christmas, in case I forget, nearer the day!

G is for Grail Found!

I managed to find one of my non-toy soldier 'grails' at the November Sandown Park show, we had the Captain Scarlet MSV (Maximum Security Vehicle), with it's repurposed Hornby O-gauge packing crate, filled with gold bars, and this beast, but we never had the little red Security Vehicle, although several of our friends did have it, but this was the one I always missed, after they'd gone to the great church-fate monster!

 

And this one was both cheap, and the early version we had, so perfect. The Spectrum Pursuit Vehicle (SPV), a rather mad, windowless, half-tracked space-tank! It seems to have two jet-turbine engines making it pretty vulnerable to frontal fire, and the shtick was that Captain Scarlet controlled it from a desk, deep in the heart of the vehicle, but, he's approximately 1:76th, so always had loads of infantry support, courtesy of Airfix, for a vehicle the size of a house!

 

It was only cheap because it's missing its missile, but I have several in various colours in the bits boxes. I saw three rather well-renovated Shadow 2's last weekend, from the other Gerry Anderson staple, UFO, and nearly bought one for the missile, just so I could shoot this with it, but they had the evilBay repro' versions, and they just aren't right! So we'll return to this one day, Mike Burrows goes through the various versions here. Looking at his, mine could do with a clean!