T is for the Third Time of Asking!

I post steam, he shows . . . err, was it steam? It was far, far away! I post books, he posts books, I show football game figures, he mentions football game figures, I show a Pirate's mountain top, he does . . . Dinosaur poo? I mention Casdon, he namecheck's Casdon, it's childish! Invicta (original copy) for Invicta (feeBay scrapings!), you get the picture, well he does, usually from somewhere/someone else!

 

23,000 toy companies, millions of toys, but he seems glued to my Blog. Is he really that insecure, or does he think he's being funny, is this what passes for comedy up there on the Wirral? They do like to refer to themselves as Scallies, the little Wags! I must be missing something, but it's a game which can be played both ways, especially if you're going to copy me umpteen times a fortnight, or should that be Fortnite! He did Fortnite, so I'll do Fortnite!

 

Of the six Tagged visits to stampers, two of the most recent three, have featured the Fortnite stampers, and I did mention a while ago there was Fortnite stuff in the queue, so shall we get these out of the way, and do the key-rings over Christmas? See, that's a heads-up for him to go and scrape some key-ring shit off of evilBay!

 

The broken blind-bags (which aren't blind - it was a poor joke, the first time!)

Contents - predominately female.

 

Outer.

 

Flyer.

 

Comparison between the stampers and the keyrings.

65mm (75 with base). 

 

Three loose ones which came in a charity-shop, something else he seems to have picked-up from this Blog, where I was showing you the shit I took home, even if it is 'shit', from early-on, while he didn't use to do charity shops, and now shows us the shelves of shit he left behind! How many crushed boxes of Connect-4 or Operation do you need to be shown in a given period?

 

 Group shot!

 

When they were in The Works, back in 2019 (I guess stupid people have poor memories, or was he concentrating too hard on not recognising Buck Rogers erasers!), we saw the blind bags, five-figure 'pack' cards and two-figure boxes, and to be honest I can't remember where this four-figure set came from (in 2023), possibly Peter?

While my not-so Blind Bags, came from Poundland (store-closure program expanding), in 2021, so they've done the rounds for several years, if you've kept your eyes open, and had several formats of retail presentation! Note also, how both types seen here, state '36 to collect', yet we have a 37th?

 

The guy on the left is not in any of the artworks? 

 

Again, females are central to the gender-mix, so I was guessing Fortnite is a game played by both sexes, divided relatively equally, but AI (who we've discovered can't be trusted) says, no, mostly males, so I guess they must like dressing as 'Tank Girls', don't tell The Donald, he'll have it banned, and them, arrested and deported, for un-American, gender-bending, 'woke' activity!

 

You'll also notice, there are similarities with the clothing of the two women, this is even more noticeable with the key-rings (whenever I get round to them), and is probably a result of characters 'skins' being chosen from a menu, and populism, the default of the majority of humanity, dictating people keep choosing the same gear!

 

The stampers (red, blue and indigo ink on mine, so far, I've also seen yellow-orange), only give you the head of the character (like the Nina Turtle set), which when other stampers seen here (Thundercats, Action Man and bug-eyed Alien) have had whole figures - albeit, very small - seems a bit of a swizz!

 

Spare shot, slightly better colours!

Now, when you find this stuff going cheap in either The Works or Poundland, you tend to think 'end of line', but in fact, with these, I think now, it was more an exercise in clearance to make room for the 'Battle Royal' Series Two wave (red cards), and to get as many people as possible hooked on them by making them so available? They are now up to series three - purple cards.

 

And, as well as two or three series of key-rings, there are some mild 'deform' figures, a pair of whom will be seen here shortly, not scraped off the internet, but in the collection!

 

And, yeah, anyone can post anything on their Blog, and if you want to turn what was once the best space toy Blog on this planet, into a pile of shit internet scrapping, fine, fill yer' boots, after all, you were doing a fair-bit of that from day one, but we sort of ignored it, for the - in context - space toys, however, if you want to continue this constant niggling, point-for-point copying, I'll give it back in spades.

M is for May's Visit - Boxed and Carded

In addition to the stuff I bought on the day, Peter had also encountered some rack-toy and other stuff, which he put to one side for me, and with the next Rack Toy Month a while away, they can go here!

 

I think we've seen the Unique set before, but the stretchysaurs from Tobar are all new. Similar to others we've seen here, but a bit bigger. And with several comparison shots of these party-favour type monochrome beasts, in the smaller scale, now seen here on the Blog, I think the first image is the 'missing link'! 

 

KTL Topco Limited would appear to be a trading name for Kandy Toys, they share the same business park and postcode address/es, and this larger-scale set may give us a clue to one or two of the many mini-sets, as that bright pigmented spray, over a greyish-white synthetic PVC, is seen in mini-sets of Dinosaurs, sea-life and wild animals?

 

I think Peter really just wanted off'ski for this, and I said I'd try to offload it, but I didn't really know how, then I realised the gazebo/folly, and a couple of the other elements, might make useful photo-props in the future, so for now it's in the storage unit!

 

There used to be a chap who specialised in Bayko (it's not Bakelite, it's polystyrene!) around the shows, but I haven't seen him or his distinctive Bayko knitted-jumper for a while, probably not since . . . well,  lockdown, so I fear the worst - when you look at the Blogs which haven't uploaded/posted for five years, you realise Covid cut a bit of a swathe through old toy collectors, I'm afraid.

 

Many thanks to Peter for all these.

H is for Hell, it's Halloween!

Or it will be soon, and while I haven't found much, I thought I'd post before the 31st this year, instead of saving it all 'till the 'The Day', it's not the same as ITLAPD, and if you do happen to like the look of anything, you need the time to go and find it! These were all sent to the Blog by its roving reporter in New York, Brian Berke, and then there’s a big, fat apology at the end!

 

Brian reported he didn't find much to interest figure collectors, and neither have I this year, but there are a few bits for another post, and I may raid the internet images for something, but one thing I had seen, but not shelfied, was some of these, and very Warhol'ian 'pop eating itself' are Christmas nutcrackers, transmogrified for Halloween! Shot in a store called Ollie's?

 

Bats! Safe now, Ozzy will be flying with them, this year! Note the gold ones have lost a lot of glitter in transit, from rubbing, I guess? I found the same thing with that 'sugared' Gummi Bear, Christmas-tree bauble, last year (or the year before?), in several baskets of them, spread around the sales area, it was hard to find one without bald-patches, a little more glue, or a shorter time between glue and dipping in the glitter/beads would solve the problem! Dollar Tree, now!

 

While I owe Brian a big, fat apology for this one! He sent it in 2018, and somehow it got lost in Picasa? Scully and Scully who don't always do Halloween like they do Easter (or Christmas, but Easter seems to be their biggie?), and, in my defence, I think that was the year they did all the blown-glass stuff, some of which was published at the time, some went in a sea-life round-up, and one or two (frog?) may still be waiting to be added, to something more thematic?

 

But Scully and Scully are a favourite, and I think the autumnal tree is particularly stunning! Cheers Brian!

D is for Discounted Dino's!

A quickie now, a bag of dinosaurs I got from a charity shop a few months ago - the trouble with having had two months away from the blog this year, is that everything is 'a few months ago'! But it was a better than usual bag, with three Schliech and several other nice examples.

 

The three Schleich's first; a stunning Brachiosaurus, a Triceratops and a kerthunkersaur called Salchania, all dated 2002 or '02, and among Schliech's earlier models, certainly a cut-above your average Hong Kong models of the time, but they have helped raise the bar, with some modern dinosaurs from China, just as good as the Schleich/Papo world!

 

A chunky-monkey from China, Dimetrodon, usually my favourite, but I'm not keen on the frayed, goldfish fin edges to his, or her sail! Most modellers, over many years, have given them stretched skin, like bats wings or the web between a human thumb-forefinger?

 

The Jaru and others (?) reissue of an old Holly sculpt on the left, and an actual Holly Pterosaur on the right.

 

"Slava Ukraine!", says . . . err . . . Bi-ceretops! A better quality, modern Chinese dinosaur from Happy Kin Toys, depicting a Nedoceratops, which had been called Diceratops until someone realised there were also wasps with the same name!

 

Based on a single skull found in Wyoming . . . it may not exist!

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nedoceratops

 

Compared to the Schleich.

 "Why habben'd you god a lumb on your dose?"

 

More traditional fayre, from China, and above average, but more in tune with older Hong Kong stuff, there has been an attempt at overwashing/overspraying a bit of realism! Fiver the bag, gives the ten a 50p retail cost, per animal, which is how I like to get these larger models!

M is for May's Visit - Civilian and Sports Etc . . .

You know the score by now, so no pack drill, just running through vaguely thematic group shots of known or unknown figures, with a bit of my blurb to try and explain some of the many, many figures out there, with the civilian and/or sports, being often among the more interesting of the posts.

 

 

Seated; I think I've decided (or found?) that the Napoleonic hat figures (two sizes, right) are actually firemen from smaller garden/beach toy fire engines, while the huge blue one is from a very larger racing motorcycle and sidecar, the smaller blue is the Budgie motorcyclist, and the painted-blue, from a 1:24th'ish racing car.

 

The little red one on the left is from the might be Kamley / might be Marty artillery/speedboat crew, as seen on the But Is It Giant blog, the grey naval-looking chap in the middle is still unknown, but keeps turning-up so his toy must be common, a jeep or taxi, plant, maybe? While the other is also one who turns up from time to time, an arabesque/LRDG type, possibly from a 'dessert' vehicle toy, but just as likely to be a helicopter/fighter-pilot, or B/Op' Tank crew, and one of two poses, if I recall correctly.

 

Various farm/civilian types; I think one or two might have been marked I can't rememeber1 Best pleased with the orange one which is another of those 'animated' novelty figures, we saw a pink tennis player from the set of a while back.

 

I think we've seen the synthetic rubber guys at the back, in ones or twos, before, but this looks like it may be a complete pose line-up, or set's figure contents? The rest are larger carpet-toy figures, four Casdon and a damaged Poplar I think, with a simplified copy of the Corgi cherry-picker cage chap.

 

There are tubs of these waiting to be sorted in the main stash and bags of them in the TBS (to be sorted) zone, and one day I'll have a session uniting all the flippers, masks, tanks and accessories, with the correct figures, and we'll have a better look at them all and ID a few!

 

Board game figures from the Charity shop, no idea, yet, but obviously aimed at younger players, and having some kind of nature-walk or safari/hunter theme, not 100% sure the bush goes with the four figures (slightly different base design), but they came together and look to have similar sculpting?

 

Mechanics and construction workers, there are so many of these, but I have, over the years downloaded or shelfied many sets, with figures, so again, a big ID session and better look will happen at some point!

  

A cake-decoration baseball player, small novelty Olympian, from Hong Kong, and taken from larger-scale sets, and two figures who are more interesting; they seem to be more HK rack-toys, but I have a couple with silver belts, a bit like the MPC ring-hand chaps, but these are much smaller and more sportsmanlike with bare-heads - but helmets could be missing? I suspect Christmas cracker novelties, as they have come in, in ones and twos.

 

Another couple of firefighters, and two policemen, the fully painted is the Hong Kong copy of Cavendish's policeman, which Cavendish also carried/wholesaled to the tourist trade at one point, and two Matchbox figures, I think those with a touch of paint were earlier than those without.

 

Two Bell Games (foreground) footballers, from the magnetic sets, three Gem, and damaged, larger 'kicker' figure from Subbuteo, along with a small-scale copy of Airfix's goal-keeper, or, at least, he looks similar to the Airfix guy!

 

A chalkware figure, probably a cake-decoration, possibly of a good-fairy, or fairy tale character, sleeping beauty? Dated 1964, with what could be a logograph, or cypher mark, but the crudeness of the writing suggests they may be more of an ownership thing, by the kid, or a parent, it's quite fine, but not formal, if you know what I mean . . . a real mystery figure?! 'Betty's Birthday 1964' . . . that kind of thing?

 

Farmers and a cuckoo-clock/barometer figure (left), we saw a similar one the other day, and I've recently discovered you can still buy them, as craft items for home hobbyists, although they look to be poured-resin copies!

 

I used to confidently say 'Thomas' for all these rubber seated figures, but having found similar figures with Tudor Rose stuff, I'm not so sure these days, and some poring over old files is needed! Probably Thomas, or similar!

 

These are nice, soft plastic versions of the frangible, hard-plastic copies of Gem and Britains ski-wearers, Arctic/Antarctic explorer on the left (ex-Britains sculpt), more Gem-like sports skier on the right. The righthand figure has ring-hands, with the broken remains of sticks, so will need a pair of them and they both need skis, but there are bags of this stuff around, so hopefully the best of everything will make-up good samples one day!

 

Two Airfix German Infantry, who were left over (we're working 'up' the folders, so, last shots first), and the larger-scale 'Lawn Jockey' (for trying-up horses) statue from a Marx playset. I have a whole bag of these somewhere, in various colours and conditions, vintage and reissue, as I was literally one of the few small-scale guys in the room for years, and people didn't know what they were (including me), so I would buy them as 'unknown, odd-scale', from 10, 20 or 50p rummage trays!

S is for Season's Shelfie Summery

Recently shot shelfies, nothing exceptional, just a few things shot over the spring/summer, which either missed other shelfie posts, or have only been taken recently, and typically after a couple of weeks of behaving itself, Blogger just unloaded them in reverse-order, so the less interesting ones are at the end now!

 

Shot in Poundland about a week ago, as with all similar shots, it's against future ID's, although they look familiar, and are probably under several brands already going back a decade or so, here 'Gear Box' with a Maisto/Jada style 'die-cast' cartouche!

 

I don't think I've had the Peppa Pig 'Busy Book' from Phidal here yet, but knowing these Tattle Tales are only half a set or less, I wasn't about to start now. Interestingly, I think this was in Morrisons, up at Elvetham Heath, near the DVD's!

 

The Works, thematic Lucky Bags, I did get a test purchase, which will get a post, but it was disappointing, as these things always are these days, human progress disappeared in a miasma of disinterest and rip-offery, years ago!

 

Currently, or still (I shot this in April) in B&M, and again, it's to ID insects in mixed lots years form now, and not something which came home with me, although, it's nice to see old favourites like fake poo, whoopee-cushions and snapping-gum are still of interest to modern kids!

 

Also April, TKMaxx, and it's a bunch of hares and rabbits (arbitrary ear-length!) in ceramic, got shot in passing, and should have been in one of the Easter posts, really!

 

The rest, all figurals, were shot with the cats we saw the other day, all in TKMaxx, all in the catering section, with bag-clips, bag-ties, tea-diffusers, a banana-tree and a fun potato-peeler!