S is for Shark Transporter!

Because you need to transport your sharks, of course! I've been umming-and-areing on this, for most of the summer, whilst waiting fruitlessly for weeks, to see the helicopter set arrive in local stores, which it did, briefly, over a month after being announced, only to sell-out before I could get a second one, to average out the poses*. But, I kept seeing this, is the same line of '2-for-£20' sets, and I kept not investing, but equally, kept forgetting to take a shelfie!

 

B&M website, Shark Transporter corporate shot!

 

Getting very pissed-off with this quite expensive, especially when compared with the old cheapo' Fuji Finepix and Nikon Coopix's I've been using since the start of the Blog, Olympus OM System camera. Too big to shoot in my bedsit, I couldn't get the flash to trigger, under any setting!

 

The case is already in the recycling system!

 

One item of road transport, and in the end I forced the fixed 'tank' off, to get a half-descent shot of the baby shark being transported, although, when I say 'baby', it fills a lorry, it's just smaller than the loose ones in the set!

 

Two deep-sea submersable exploration types.

 

A pair of more conventional tourist/sightseeing submarines.

 

A couple of surface vessels, including a quite chunky hovercraft.

 

It's not Stingray, it doesn't want to look like Stingray, it's never seen Stingray, it has no idea what Stingray's fins look like, or the configuration of Stingray's rear-engine vent, it's not called Stingray, doesn't want to be called Stingray, and look - it has a blunt-nose! It's the bootleg Stingray!

 

Four vinyl-like sharks, from the left a Hammerhead, Basking, Swordfish and Great White . . . in scale with the one on the truck, these are about 30-feet long!

 

The reason I gave-in and bought it, apart from getting a Blog-post based on actual 'stuff', was in part for the five animals, but also because everything here's plastic, so the vehicles will go very well with the Bruder and Kinder types, in future overviews.

 

This Dinosaur Transporter, is also in the line, and has four of the smaller-size dinosaurs, I think this has been shelfied here before, as a future 'mixed-lot' animal ID aid, and we've seen and shelfied similar dino-trucks from/in B&M, Smyths and TKMaxx.

 

* The fact that the only decent set of small soldiers seen in any of the big stores this year, sold out so quickly, is possibly a message the stores have failed to recognise. More toy soldiers please!

F is for Follow-ups - Recent Posts

A few 'matters arising', as it were; things to add to recent posts, which have come-in or been found since I posted the original stuff!

 

Power Rangers

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2025/09/m-is-for-mighty-morphins.html

 

I had the commercial art/shot in Picasa all along! And this white chap, who would seem to be a knock-off, came in some mixed lot and was shot separately by me, back in 2010, and I'm not sure where he is now, as he wasn't in the over-view post a few years ago?

 

True Legends - Mythical Warriors

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2025/09/o-is-for-once-upon-time-in-june-sci-fi.html

 

Brian Berke sent this shot of his 'Goodly Hero' as they tend to be called on the gaming table, all painted-up, and fighting a mini-Godzilla from the Wicked Duels / SCS Direct sets, also painted.

 

White Ghosts

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2025/10/w-is-for-white-buttons-white-ghosts.html

 

Confirmation of this year's trend for short, fat, funny-faced ghosts, with an odd plate and bottle-stoppers shelfied in TKMaxx, and some 'Illooms' or illuminated-balloons from B&M, and it's not ghosts per se, they've been a feature of Halloween stuff since before I was aware the event, it's this half-opened shroom-head design, which is so strong at the moment!

 

Rado Industries / Ri-Toys Centurion 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2025/10/b-is-for-back-to-london-july-1-of-2.html

 

Purely a confirmation shot, tying the tank into Ri-Toys sets, where it did stirling service as a British, American and German WWII AFV!

 

Noddy
 

Mentioned in passing a couple of times recently, figures in one's or two's, this is a partial set of what I suspect is over 18, maybe 20-plus figures, and which I think are Marx? But were they a Swansea 'Kins' thing, or contract manufactured for someone else? I have a PC Plod somewhere, and the damaged Skittle, plus a couple of others I think?

 

Marx . . . check, Noddy . . . check!

 

https://projectswordtoys.blogspot.com/2025/10/weve-found-noddy.html 

 

How desperate is he? And he didn't "pick it up", it was relisted on eBay the other day! 

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/277455102102

 

So he's lying, to copy me, and scrape doll shite, off of evilBay without any apparent context, why? How threatened is he feeling? It's almost more fun than annoyance now! What an idiot! he also managed to check-off the unknown Power Ranger knock-off above, with some Mexican Luchador he knew nothing about, so when it's not faux ignorance (what do you think readers?), it's actual ignorance! And he did skulls the day after me, it's faintly tragic!

C is for Comedy Candy

As mentioned elsewhere in the last few days, Halloween was just not a thing in the UK, when I was a kid, we didn't 'celebrate' it, we weren't [culturally] aware of its connection with South/Latin America and The Day of the Dead, we didn't import any Halloween 'stuff'.

 

It is, entirely, here at least, a commercial invention (like Father's day) to sell us stuff, and we keep buying it! Ephemeral stuff, piles of polymer stuff, which goes straight to landfill, unnecessary stuff, stuff we don't need, stuff we didn't know we don't need, and . . . amusing, edible stuff!

 

This missed last year's Halloween posts, as it was given to me by a customer I was delivering to, in Frimley Green, on the 31! Under the wrapper it was a smooth, milk-chocolate oval, and very nice!

 

These are in Lidl at the moment.

 

Candy Container.

 

Anything container!

 

I succumbed to some of the polymer shite, myself! There were several colours and I nearly selected the purple one, but decided the clear one would look most like a crystal skull, once emptied, and took that instead, and I think it was a good decision, looking at it empty? I'll find something to keep in it, and it can sit somewhere, looking vaguely sinister! I think it was also Lidl?

 

Not nice! Not-chocolate-mice! Chocolate 'flavour' (not 'flavoured') sugar candy, they taste fatty, and aren't quite as realistic looking as the artwork on the B&M box would suggest. As kids, I remember us being disappointed by mini-eggs at Easter, which were made out of this devil's faux-chocolate!

 

The missing pumpkin from a previous post . . . I bought another pack, they were so cheap! B&M stores, and they did have the more colourful ones, from a couple of years ago, I just didn't see them last time!

 

Also Lidl, these are better chocolate, with some actual chocolate in!

Well - once you've unwrapped it, to photograph . . . ! 

 

The Aldi catalogue shows similar Lollies.

T is for Tricky Treats

I posted one of these a couple of years ago, but didn't see any last year, however, B&M managed to get another five out this year, although I ate the pumpkin without photographing it in close-up, soz!

 

Not as colourful as last time, but, like last time, I'd describe the flavours as 'tutti-frutti', yet, I did notice that they varied between the lollipops, and it would seem they are all supposed to taste different, nevertheless, there's no hint as to what the flavours are, or which lolly is which? Still in B&M, and worth looking out for instead of photographing all the piles of polymer, land-fill, shite!

 

As I entered the store, the couple ahead of me said "Oh, there's a spider on the floor" and we had a laugh about it, and as they wandered-off to look for whatever they were after, I though, it might need a good home, so rescued it from the detritus under the shelves! I think it had fallen-off one of those big polymer, land-fill, shite piles! There's a trend for 'spider's web' netting, pre-stapled with hundreds of spiders?

T is for Two - Pool Party!

I went back to B&M to try and get another set, so balance up the figures a bit, and they were sold-out in two stores! But I found these beach-toys, and shelfied one while buying the other!

 

Fun for kids, but the rubber boat would be useful for garden gamers. I suspect I bought these (or something very similar) a few years ago, which was why I only shelfied them, that and the rather too chunky, white-button motors!

 

De-carded now, so I can't retake it, I'm struggling with the settings on a new camera!

 

They are actually soft polymer (like a dense PVC), and totally sealed units so when the stack of three watch-batteries run out, there'll be no more lights, and the shock of them hitting the water presumably sets them off, I didn't work it out until I dropped one! It's the same tech' as all these flashing kids' shoes and suchlike!

 

B&M, now, three-quid each!

R is for Rack Toy'ish

Not really a rack Toy, as they are on the shelf, and £8.00, but sort of 'rack toy fare' if you know what I mean, which you will by the end of the post, hopefully, if you're paying attention, which nobody says you have to, you're all free agents!

 

Back at the beginning of May, Peter Evans, roving reporter of Plastic Warrior Magazine, asked my to look out for this set, which he'd seen being advertised by B&M, the modern replacement for the now defunct Woolworths, Wilkinsons and Debenhams (sans clothes!), which I said I'd do the next day as I was heading over to B&M, looking for something else - a set of art markers!

 

Well, in the end I had to go to three stores to get the art markers; Basingrad, Borden and Reading, but none of them had the reported Helicopter set! In the meantime, Peter had found images to keep me keen, however, after a couple more visits, and more info' from Peter it wasn't until well unto July, that I finally got them, not in Borden (the smaller store) but in the B-stoke biggie! Just in time for the summer holidays!

 

Eight different figure poses, which look familiar, but I can't remember where/when or if we've seen these exact sculpts, or just something similar? And they come in green and brown, which kept washing-out under the flash!

 

 

Slightly skinny US-equiped types, the brown here is truer to the eye, than the other shots in this post, or at least I think it is, you, or I, may be hopelessly colour-blind, in a way not yet recognised by science, without knowing it, and have a completely different view of the world, compared to everyone else?!

 

A small 'readymade' tank, more 'space' than generic anything, is the best of the three smaller vehicles included, although it resembles some drawing-board stuff!

 

Accessories are pretty run-of-the-mill.

 

Scaler, it's basically rack toy junk, in a big Helicopter-shaped carry-case!

 

Only the one flag, a subdued-colour USAF, but several holes for it about the place!

 

The figures, while conforming to the advertised count, and a 50/50 (welp, 40/40!) split, seem to be otherwise, completely random in the assortment, with only one brown 'ready', but seven 'commander' sculpts!

 

It's fun, and it's nice that some people are still putting new stuff out there, and thanks to Peter for the heads-up, we buy this shit so you don't have to, but out there now, B&M, if you fancy a punt!