W is for Wildlife at The Works

I haven't visited The Works much in the last couple of years, what with everything else that's been happening, but I managed a visit the other day and came away with five inexpensive rack-toys which may interest you, especially if you're looking for Christmas stocking-filler ideas that may help nurture the next generation of 'plastic warriors'.

 

 

Three 'standards'; Dinosaurs, Zoo and Sea Life, no Farm, strangely, nor Insects or Reptiles (the other common subjects in these cases), or Birds, but as a Brucey Bonus the fourth set - in different graphics - is Unicorns . . . of course!

 

The first three are pretty self-explanatory and seem to be new models in the 'mini' oeuvre (we may have seen the dinosaurs elsewhere?), while the Unicorns are rather simplistic sculpts, and poorly bagged, so need to be examined to ensure a decent colour spread with both (yeah! Only two) poses, but all good fun for kids.

They also have, unrelated to the previous quartet, a carded set of rubber-jiggler finger-puppet dinosaurs (which have their own page in preparation), but nice to see such traditional fayre available at this time of year. All five in The Works now, ten-quid, the lot!

R is for Rake of Rack Toys!

I mentioned, after the mad rush to collect and post the horror sets in time for Halloween, that David DeSoto had sent other figures too, and while I shot them at the time, I've only just got round to posting them, here, now! A bit more 'khaki' sneaking into the festive season!

An Imperial set, which, interestingly has those copies of New Ray, which I got quite excited about a few years ago, dating the set, as David writes; "The Imperial set with the New Ray knock-offs came out right before or shortly after Imperial Toys filed for bankruptcy under Chapter 11 here in the U.S.  [2020, ed.] As you may know, Ja-Ru, Inc. bought Imperial's assets and entered into a separate arrangement to purchase their operations in Mexico", David adds; "The two places where Imperial soldiers were once abundant, Wal-Mart and Dollar Tree, have not had soldiers on their pegs with any regularity since the transition."

Another, slightly older (?) Imperial set with a mix of the old, much pirated Tim Mee GI's, which I've always liked as they are 100% depicting the Vietnam era, along with some mof the more modern-looking GI types, straight outta' China! Colours are donor-specific, so it's Vietnam v's Gulf!

This is one of the more current generics, which we've seen a few of, in recent years here, however these are interesting for being the ones I've only shown as an online image, courtesy of Amazon or Ali Baba, and are the figures where each comes with his own larger-based scenic vignette of street-furniture or defence work! I will get them out and look at them properly once I'm settled.

Another generic, but this time a 1970/80's original, useful for being the copies of Britains/Lone Star swoppet Wild West, another long term project is to try and ascribe as many of these as possible, and while they are dead-common in lose lots, they are always mixed-up by the juvenile original owners, and sets like this help you work out which is which, as far as base-type, ethylene or PVC body parts or accessories, or even poses are concerned. Credited to a Triple D importer/Jobber.

 

These look to be the current (ish) copies/homages of Supremes hearald'esque Wild West, now credited to DL / Du Liang Toys (previousl;y Maxxi Toys, Stobok, Funtastic, Aliki, Liberty Imports and PMS-McColls), and consist of just the foot figures with a play-mat in that strangely metallic, slightly crinkley plastic.

 

I've also left this in the bag for now, as I've never seen one over here, and I don't think Steve Weston has them either, so I'm guessing these are a US 'show exclusive' whereby AIP (Armies in Plastic) get to shift end of line, over production or test-shots in mixed bags at an affordable price?

There's Colonial/Boxer rebellion, some ACW, WWI and a few Marlburian/AWI types I think, and a nice introductory sample to AIP's stuff, of which I don't have a lot, and what I do have is mostly WWI, I think.

There were also these lose AIP figures, which I know I didn't have, sold variously as Gulf War Infantry, Marines and US Peacekeepers, depending on the plastic colour, each in a set A and set B, of six poses each. I think these are the former two, and between them seem to be all the poses*, which some other-colour duplicates, so again a nice sample, and they are - undeniably - very nice sculpts, well animated.

 

It's not that I ignore this new stuff out of some misguided principle, but simply that A) there's so much else to find of either a vintage or more ephemeral (rack toy) nature, B) it's priced to sell-to, and does sell to adult collectors, so will probably always be around, in quantity, and C) as new production, it does get covered-well, elsewhere, not least Plastic Warrior magazine, but all samples are gratefully received nevertheless.

 

And many thanks to David for all the above, and the previously-seen Halloween bits, that's two additions to the Tag list . . . and archive too; DL and Triple D!

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.