Zee is for Zylmex is for Motormax is for Redbox!

I can't remember if the takeover of the Zylmex factory and tool-bank came out in the initial rebuttal of the nonsense from TJF and his onanistic monkey-lizard back in 2016, or if it had already come out, but suffice to say the demise of the Z's was good for Tai Sang!

I'm fairly sure this is an Argos code but it could have been Index? Not that it maters particularly; these sets were available elsewhere at the time (early 2000's? I'll probably have the date in the old book manuscript, or the Argos pages to scan sometime), and an outer liner is A) not pretty and B) hard to get a paragraph out of, which I seem to've done . . . phew!

I'm also not sure where I've got the idea (die-cast site somewhere?) but I believe Zyll produced some of these (or the Motormax brand), right at the end, and Redbox took over the stock as well as the tools etc . . . certainly the logo bottom-right would appear to be a generic's 'phantom' sub-brand, bearing no relation to Zee and not much to Redbox, although it is an R, while the only thing tying this to Redbox is a small, white, paper sticker on the back.

Figures were rubbery PVC copies of Matchbox American Infantry; 2-each of five poses, these have a very muted camouflage, others [in the collection] have more obvious contrast between paint and plastic, we may have seen a few here in the past, but I also think a second marque has been associated with them at some point - bought in?

The lorry has hardly changed in 40/50 years, the wheels have had a redesign and the markings/decoration are sharper!

We looked at the various half-tracks once or twice here at Small Scale World (most notably in this overview) with both Zylmex-marked and blanked-off belly-pans. The tanks are for another day, but those of a certain age will remember them butterfly-clipped to a piece of sloping landscape in their window-boxes, I have several AMX30's somewhere, which had obviously gone-cheap at some point! But there are others in a tub with the knock-off mini-mites (Cragstone or Kresege?) and Tomy minis. The helicopter is an improvement on some of the earlier Zee Toys stuff!

These are still out there in various configurations depending on the contract and Redbox are better labelled on this exact set, or were a while ago in TKMaxx. Now; there are too many question marks in this post, but I shot it because I happened to have it in front of me the other day as everything is in a bit of turmoil here at the moment (boiler died yesterday!), and there is one more question mark - I mentioned in the previous post they might be Macau not HK production . . .

There is somewhere, some data tying Tai Sang and Zylmex to die-casting factories, or a factory in Macau, yet you never find that mark on any products by any of the marques (Tai Sang-Blue Box-Redbox or Zee-Zyll-Zylmex), so I'm not sure about any of it; however they (or some of them) may have originated in the Portuguese colony rather than Hong Kong? As all marks are now 'China' and most of the tools still in production; I guess it's a moot point!

H is for Havok by Bluebird Toys, Skirmish Battle Set

In 1997 Bluebird produced what could have been a real runner against Games Workshop, however they managed to tie the launch in to the UK 'Catalogue Shopping' chain Argos, which rather stunted the child at birth! The initial release was a starter box called 'Skirmish Battle Set' (Argos Cat.No. 307/0338), this was accompanied by two other releases; The 'Karn Banshee Attack Thopters (307/0338) and; 307/0008 a couple of 3 figure sets, however due to the vagaries of Argos stock-control the two sets were random, so army building with any sense of order was a nightmare!

Front and back of the box.

Figures included in the Skirmish set were at the back left; 3x 47th Line troopers of the Nexus and a 'Hundred [Form]' warrior (in front - green), front right; 3 'Darkest Suns' and behind them - in rust brown - a 'Form' warrior, from the Karn Empire.

The 'Form's' that each Form-warrior stays close to, large, simple robots with some parts in common and with the back-flags - a nod to the Samurai, something else that GW mine with much enthusiasm...there's nothing new under the sun, even the Darkest Sun!

The basic scenery, note the early computer graphics, there is no care in the design of these, no love, if you are going to print and die-cut a sheet of card, why not do it properly? The cost is in the card (and shipping) not the ink and has been since the 70's.

Army building allowed for a third 'side' the Pteravore, similar to GW's Tyranids, or H.R. Geiger's Alien, it's all recycled!

H is for Havok by Bluebird Toys, Figures & Figure Sets

This is how they came from Argos, two random packets, in this case Nexus Tribunes and Pteravore Razors.

Here we see most of the units fielded by the Nexus, less those shown in the previous post. Front L-R are three members of the Brotherhood and - baseless - a Doomguard. Middle row shows the three Kinsmen and three Nexus Troopers, sans bases. The rear row has the Tribunes on the left and Assault Troops on the right.

The Nexus were supposed to get two larger vehicles; a Mauler light-attack tank and a Hammer heavy-assault tank, I don't believe either ever made it to market? The Hammer sharing a code number (N-09) with the Storm-trooper set, it's a fair bet they weren't issued either!

The Karn present themselves, again from to back, Left to right; Klan Warriors, two un-based Kai-unes and three Karn Troopers with behind them; a set of Borkian Mercenaries and two Suma-kai, again without bases.

Most sets have 'detailing' stickers on weapons, shields or - in this case - wings, these seem to have been applied before final sale to end-user. The karn also have 'lost' units; Glaive Riders (share a code with the Banshee Thopters) and Heavy Weapons.

Final Army/Race was the Pteravore, and the only set I've found are the Razors. Two further sets had army/points cards included in the battle set; P-02 'Screamers' and P-03 'Hell Hounds', I suspect that they were never issued.

Inset photo shows the base types/designs I've yet to identify/allocate to a specific set, and any help given with be gratefully received/acknowledged.

I've managed to identify some bases from the two mint sets and the play-set, most of the rest are around 70% sure, the baseless ones are probably those in the inset, as to the green ones? The stickers were placed in the factory, so both the green ones and some black ones I have without bases might be for the 'Thopters' or something?

Note; Because some other sets share numbers, it may be that those figures with a vehicle code accompanied that vehicle (packaging-wise?) or were destined to?