K is for ♯♪♫♫♪ Keep'ouwn Raaahhkin' . . . ♫♪♪♫

♫♫♪. . . in the Freeeee-wooorrrlld! ♫♪

Ladies and Gentlemen . . . The camera never lies!

The esteemed editor of Plastic Warrior magazine played the Teamsterz Stadium, with Dylan - fact!

Get the ultimate Rock'n'Roll merchandise here.

PW4 is for Polymer Player Paul Plucks Plastic Plectrum in Purple Pumps!

Or R is for Rockola, Replicants and Ruddy Hell; He's Only Gorn and Touched the Big Seven-Oh!

One of the nicest surprises at the PW show was a special figure from Peter Cole at Replicants, made to celebrate the 70th year (or 70's years?!!) of our estimable editor and all-round good-egg; Paul Morehead. The surprise being shared between both attendees and Mr. Morehead who had no idea the figure was going to be there!

Groovey-Scot Farmer of the Applegate Experience - '67 man!

Peter and Paul have been close since long-before I've been getting Plastic Warrior magazine, each helping the other with their respective projects and problems, whether practical . . . sculpting and moulding plastics, or historical; where Britains and Herald have dominated, so I think it's really nice that Peter went to this much trouble.

And, I don't know who painted the figure but look at that face  - that's Paul . . . with sideburns!

As if there was any doubt; the tale was explained on a little info-card on the day, and figures were available for sale for those of us who needed a voodoo pin-cushion! Joking! To be fair he hasn't changed that much, but if I had the chance to judge for myself, I missed it, as he only told me he'd gigged a pub round the corner, after the event!

I bought one! I'm going to have a stab at painting it at some point, but something a little more subdued than the show-sample, leather and denim maybe?

Should still be available from Weston's ToySoldier & Musician's Emporium

Paul Rocks!

I done did a .gif! This is it! It needed a scaler, or at least I thought so, Mr Morehead clearly had other ideas about sharing the stage with a berserker!

A few close-ups of the axe-man, out of the pack, there's quite a large undercut filled-in behind the gwi'tar but it looks easy enough to trim back and will be below the eye-line in any normal event, unless you mount/display it way above head-hight!

"How much did I drink last night?"

The word on the street is that 'Pluckin' Paul' would play '...any band, for beer!', and this old archive image of him and Hillbert Grape backing for Bat Fink & The Screamer at the Teamster stadium in Toytown, Toysylvania would seem to go some way to proving the truth of that particular rumour!

A is for Answer . . . from the Antipodes!

I may have mentioned a parcel from Mr. Sibbald down there in New Zealand? He actually sent four 'things' to the blog, three of which will be Blogged over the next week or two, and while the other things involved multiples of figures; the fourth 'thing' was this single figure, but how useful he turned-out to be:

He's pink . . . he must be Pink!

It's the missing colour from the unknown board-game set I couldn't find in the recent past despite trying various search terms on both Google and feebleBay. But as soon as I saw it (and I may have posited pink as one of the possible colours of the missing figure) I knew where to look.

Not only did the pink give it away, a quick look at the other's revealed the red, blue and brown to look confirmatory familiar, and I eMailed Glenn the same day to say I was sure they came from the Minimodels plant in Havent, as they match some of the figures from the 'Cops and Robbers' Sweeny-branded and Geronimo's Treasure games.

Sir Geldoff of Boomtown auditions for Boyzone!

So it was straight to Boardgamegeek, for searches of Berwick, Condor, Omnia, Tri-Ang, and err . . . the other one . . . Ariel! Nothing! Not a sausage, definitely not a guitarist! So I went to feebleBay and tried Pop Band, Pop Star, Rock Band and Rock Star, Band, Guitar Player and Guitarist (including all the usual Board Game, Vintage, Old, Plastic and Toy Figure prefixes or suffixes). . . some results were too long to be faffed-with, others drew a blank.

I was getting worried; I'd promised Glenn that by the time he read my eMail - which I'd sent in what was the middle of the night down there - I'd know the name of the game and it was beginning to look like I'd drawn a blank . . . again!

"One more note of Tar-rar-rah-boom-di-ay

and you'll be an ex-guitarist mate!"

But discovering in the course of these searches that Waddington's carried versions of some of the games carried by the other companies above - presumably as Waddington's bought them out - and remembering that Waddington's ended-up with the Subbuteo system also linked to Havent through the supply of the Stadden-designed figures, I thought I'd try Waddington's as a search subject.

I tried Waddington's Rock . . . nothing, Waddington's Star (as in rock or pop-star) . . . still nothing, finally Waddington's Pop (obvious; but it took me five or ten minutes to try it!) and BINGO! Two, near-mint, for sale as of last Friday;

Mike Reid's Pop Quiz, 60mm, polystyrene, six board-game pieces, Minimodels for Waddington's, probably, also, a Stadden sculpt?

I don't know, but suspect it might have been sold under other names/titles in other places where Waddington's operated (Oz, NZ, South Africa?) as Mike Reid wouldn't have been known outside the UK, being a British radio DJ!

Anyway; mystery solved . . . thanks to- and thanks; Glenn!

P is for Plastic Popsters

A bit of a swizz, as we've seen these before here at SSW, but I had them out and shot them so we might as well have a brief reprise!

Above; we have a variation of colours, the final guitarist is more orangey than the camera's flash would allow, I think I've seen yellow sets (they tended to be sold in sets of the same colour), but never  ared set, which, as I've suggested before, is probably due to the fact that the drum-kits are always red plastic.

Below; a bit of paint variation within a single plastic-colour's palette.

The aforementioned Drum-kits; I gave him a 'proper' set, so he can knock-out a rolling solo while the rest of the band pop-off the stage for a top-up of Charlie!

The kit is well made, and clever, but machined not hand-sculpted, like the later skis we looked at a day or two ago, and consists of a hollow bass, two side-drums and a single cymbal on a spike. The skins - suspended over both ends of the hollow 'tube' - are just blank, self-adhesive, paper price-labels!

A complete band, but with colours from three 'sets' . . . Let's Rock!!

With our frilly, crooner's shirt! Hee-hee!

S is for Subbuteo's Snappy Songsters!

Although known to be by Subbuteo in the UK, it's likely these were bought-in, and probably from Hong Kong, for several reasons, not least that a falco subbuteo (European hobby), as a small raptor, probably eats beetles when it's had a poor day's hunting larger pray!

Two other [proper!] reasons for suspecting importation are that 1) they were also issued carded in the 'States with white rosette-backs as lapel badges, presumably to cash-in on a US Tour?

2) They are made of a softish plastic which could be either a polyethylene or a dense PVC, either way; it's a much better material for making footballers than the brittle styrene Subbuteo was using at the time.

Nevertheless, they are very well-done compared to all the other 'Beatles' cake-decorations we've looked at, although Subbuteo sold them as stand-alone (stand- together!) figures in a window-box set. All three guitars are different shapes, with well-registered stickers applied, and all are held in place with a small black rubber-band on the note-forming/fret-board wrist.

The drummers stool is glued on and the Drum-kit usually has more than just a bass-drum if I recall correctly (with a stand of some kind?), but a slip of the scissors (you had to cut the kit out) and you might easily end up with just the main drum! Indeed, the lack of a 'proper' drum-kit may point to the US badges coming first?

R is for Rock Chick Rolls Around Again

I thought I recognised that Japanese guitarist the other day and sure enough; when I got the civi's out of storage there she was again, as an unpainted Mattel import with most of her band -mates (I'm missing one).

Sold as both CUTIE (Coolest Ultra Tiny Individuals [on] Earth) in four figure random blister-packs and Tiny Trendies as full set of ten window-packs, by Mattel and also five-figure sets, maybe? The one we saw the other day may be a Japanese Bandai-issued original, marking is the same on both.

F is for Follow-up - Beatles Cake Decorations

The last time we looked at some of these (if not the time before as well!), I think I mentioned that I had another set in storage, and these are they!

They are midway between the smaller and larger examples we've seen here before, but Ringo at least (if you're a cake decorator) comes firmly attached to a drum! Like the previous sets you can see these in other colours on the Wibbly Wobbly Way, I've seen them in a similar pale blue to the smaller set, apple green, lemon yellow and primrose.

When we looked at the - still title-less - pop star board-game playing pieces a few months (weeks?) ago, I hoped out-loud I might have a 6th-colour in storage, I didn't, I had these two who are now 'for swap' duplicates, also in the box was the rather sullen looking grunge-babe who I think can be dated to the 1980's 'pop scene' by dint of her pixy-boots!

She's marked 'Japan' and definitely comes under the 'factory-painted LRG' (little rubber girl!) classification.

1st May 2020 - Turned out a few weeks later she was one of the Mattel 'Cuties'

R is for Reaper Rock Chick!

The same day I encountered the Buck Rogers set, I was already heading for the Games Shop in Aldershot which - many years ago - was the HQ of Esdevium Games (now Asmodee) hoping for another extension pack for my Zombies!!! (which I've never played), but they didn't have any, or - at least - they only had a cards-only extension pack.

Consequently, looking around for a consolation-purchase, and by now having the huge TSR box under one arm and my portfolio and 1000 4x5½ click-shut bags in the other hand, I plumped for this guitar-wielding punk-rock, tank-girl, chick-babe!

To be honest; when I got it home and out of the visually quite-distorting blister, I wasn't terribly impressed by the quality of the sculpt, which I would call a bit blurred or 'sandy', I've seen better 3D prints. I hope she will paint-up a bit better one day with a flash-trim and some washes?

It says it's 20% recycled plastic which is a good thing and I don't think that's the problem, I just feel it's a very poorly-defined/finished casting.

Meanwhile Brian was ID'ing his own diver from the other-day's post, with a much cleaner looking casting! Line-branded to Chronoscope, I think it also covers nicely for the worlds of Messrs Wells, H. G.  and Verne, Jules!

However  . . . unpacking for the day, photographing and sorting (of six colours, 360-odd times) faced a two-hour-plus hiatus, due - I'm sure - to Blog-visitor Jah's encouragement of shear nehkid idleness in my ancillary-staff!

Boss . . . can you move the sun an inch to the left? It's right in my eyes!

That's better . . .

. . . zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!

G is for Gem-erations!

I know, one of me' worst titles ever! And I've 'ummed and 'arred about whether to actually do this post at all, or wait until the rest are out of storage, but it'll do for a primer, and there's more to come with these so they can be returned to.

On the left is the first version Gemodels (GeModels, Ge-Models - et al.) footballer cake decoration, he has the little spigot which was designed to take a small football (I've never seen one but they must be out there somewhere). Second from the right is - at first glance - the second version, which was produced without the ball-spike, whether the balls were still sold along-side them or not is open to question, maybe in the small 'set' packets?

The two red ones (type 4 below) appear to be UK-originating copies, perhaps for a board-game; I think a Soccerboss (possibly not/pre- Ariel's version) carried figurines looking like Gem's. These two are quite good copies, but lack the finesse or facial details of Gem originals.

Also while I say cake decoration, it seems from the Gemodels game (Cup-Tie) shown to the Plastic Warrior team that the spigots of version one may be relatively exclusive to that game (no sign of the ball though!), and the latter - spike-less - issue being for onward shipment to Culpitt and Co., and he has paint which suggests a cake decoration; the Cup-Tie figures were unpainted in four colours (red and blue teams, green and yellow goalies)

There were UK-looking copies of the spigoted type 1's as well, they aren't illustrated in this post but I have them in storage and will include them next time we look at these. Type 1's and 2's are quite hard to find, but 2∙1's are even harder!

As well as dropping the spigots, Gem tried over-moulding, and I'm calling them type 2∙1 (for this post; it's more complicated than the small sample we're studying today) and this is actually one of them, I have more in the storage lot so we will return to them for a closer look one day.

Mr. Musgrave was quite dismissive of his firms over-moulding efforts his the interview with PW, but in fact this is a solid piece, which has stood the test of time; I'm exerting quite a bit of [bending] pressure to try to show the join line in the above shots

In order to obtain the upper cavity (red-polymer shot) you can see how the old type 2 mould was broken-up and then reassembled, in the course of the arc-welding (or braising) of what must have been quite small pieces of steel (or bronze-alloy), the player's left hand has been moved-out/slid-accross at the wrist and the right arm now looks as if it was reset by a quack after a heavy-tackle.

That has then been joined or merged (Musgrave tells of both colours having to be simultaneously injected) with the simpler lower-cavity, here shot in white-plastic. However the clear mould line round the whole figure suggests a four-part tool, all very complicated for a 1-inch novelty figure.

Also one of the reasons given for trying over-moulding was to reduce painting, so the fact that the figure has had his collar and cuffs apparently factory-painted is a bit odd to say the least?

The commonest version in soft polyethylene plastic are the second figure from the left shown here, they are slightly smaller that the type 1 / 2's (with smaller bases to match), no doubt due to the 'destruction' of the type 1/2 mould tools in the over-moulding experiments, so quite easy to ID. Loss of both size and surface detail suggests they pantographed their own remaining type 1 / 2's!

Years ago I used to wonder if they were Hong Kong copies, as they remained alongside the real HK copies (third from the left - polystyrene giant) in the older baker's shops, although when I say alongside, some bakers would have one type, some; the other. Also they tended to be glossy, both in plastic type and paint, next to the earlier chalky, matt-painted variants.

Both the gloss paint and glossy polymer changes were down to Culpitt who handled most of this stuff and used a sub-contractor to manufacture and paint - much to Gem's chagrin as we learn in PW's publication - see below.

The three are here compared to a much smaller Hasbro era [brittle type] Subbuteo figure on the right.

But over the years; as the other colours came in, it became clear they were the same plastic as Gem's Pop Group figures or the skateboarders for instance, or late issues of some of the other cake decorations. In all three/four Gem types (and type 3 may have been issued by or catalogued under 'Festival' as well?) there are only the three poses;

Goalkeeper - standing ready*

Striker - kicking with left foot

Running/dribbling - right foot off the ground

* Paint black for referee, add white stick for World Cup referee!

Now, when you find (increasingly 'found') these in those older baker's shops, you will/would often discover the outlet had a whole bunch of the kicking and dribbling poses in say; red and blue or red and white (with contrasting shorts) with green, yellow or orange goalkeepers, but in fact, all colours/poses turn-up, so I'm guessing that elsewhere another shop would be sent green and orange players and red/blue (more probably all-white) goalkeepers?

This applies to the latter Culpitt years though, who were releasing both Gem and HK stock well into the 1990's, Gem themselves had a complicated issuing system, which is reproduced below.

Hong Kong's hard plastic ones (type 5 here) created another pose (b), achieved by varying the running guy (a); firmly placing both feet on the base, closer together. These can still be found around, but - sadly - less and less independent bakers exist, and of those who do, many are new businesses with little interest in stocking this stuff, some can still be found from on-line suppliers.

The 'type 6' is a second set of HK pirates, they are just as big, but skinnier overall and have lozenge or 'biscuit'-shaped bases. I only have the one here at the moment, but there is a bunch in storage, mostly the more conventional red/blue types, this one is a tad older maybe with his primrose-yellow strip! They sold alongside the British 3's and HK 5's.

In a 1979 Ge-Models pricelist shown in the PW Gemodels Special (ISBN 1 900898 32 2,  - and available from the editior at the above link) the sale of footballers (probably/likely type 3's) is broken down as follows -

Ft1A - Footballer (pose 1, plain – hair and flesh painted)

Ft1B - Footballer (pose 1, shorts or shirt painted)

Ft1C - Footballer (pose 1, stripped shirt)

Ft2A - Footballer (pose 2, plain – hair and flesh painted)

Ft2B - Footballer (pose 2, shorts or shirt painted)

Ft2C - Footballer (pose 2, stripped shirt)

Ft3 - Goalkeeper

Ft4 - Goalposts x2

FTT4A - 2 players, Goalkeeper and Goalpost, (plain – hair and flesh painted)

FTT4B - 2 players, Goalkeeper and Goalpost, (shorts or shirt painted)

FTT4C - 2 players, Goalkeeper and Goalpost, (stripped Shirt)

FTT6A - 4 players, Goalkeeper and Goalpost, (plain – hair and flesh painted)

FTT6B - 4 players, Goalkeeper and Goalpost, (shorts or shirt painted)

FTT6C - 4 players, Goalkeeper and Goalpost, (stripped Shirt)

FTT12A - 10 players, Goalkeeper and Goalpost, (plain – hair and flesh painted)

FTT12B - 10 players, Goalkeeper and Goalpost, (shorts or shirt painted)

FTT12C - 10 players, Goalkeeper and Goalpost, (stripped Shirt)

And orders were taken for individual team strips, I believe some of the four chaps in the goal-mouth's are from such orders - but they could as easily be home-paint conversions. I think the type 3 one on the right of the UK goal is the 'stripped shirt' variant, and as the chap below him has shorts in the same green-paint he may also be a factory 'shorts or shirt' job, top left of the four is a mess over-painted at a later date, lower left is a tatty standard or default paint.

To be fair, striped figures, or 'odd' colour-ways are uncommon, with most bakers seemingly taken what they were given (by Culpitt), which as you can tell is mostly 'hair and flesh' [and boots], with 'shorts' as common and 'shirts' rarer paintings.

While we're looking at painting, the 4th red, green and blue type 5's on the far right of each of  their respective rows are all stencil/sprayed against the commoner hand-painting of the rest. And the size of the HK copies is down to their having been copied from type 1/2's before the moulds were lost, to which you have to add deeper bases

Hong Kong play six-a-side on a very odd-looking pitch!

I was regularly buying type 3, these 5's or - occasionally - 6's in retail outlets until around 2010/12, but they are starting to dry-up as the older stores close-up. The HK ones are still findable, and another source for them is catering or kitchen suppliers/shops, although they are all slowly going-under, or on-line only!

We've lost three locally in the last few years (two in Basingrad and one in Aldershot - where I often picked-up stuff), and while a couple have opened in the same period (one in Basingrad the other in Woking), neither of them stock/ed this kind of thing and the Basingrad one has closed already. They did both have Christmas stuff including the Culpitt plug-together 'swoppet' Santa - a couple of Christmases ago though!

The 'Hong Kong' (see next paragraph) goals are really a bit shite, but once they have been anchored in royal icing, or oozed into cream or fondant they are stable enough to survive the whole cake-carrying-in-and-candle-blowing-out shenanigans, I suppose!

And - they only follow the Gemodels originals in not being very good at standing-up, although with the Gem originals it was down to a pair of very small bases! Indeed - the 'HK' goals may be UK-sourced - by Culpitt? They are a very crude moulding in a cheap, bendable polymer somewhere between polythene and polypropylene, and could have been located locally for just over or near cost-price? Perhaps from the same firm handling Gem's moulds for Culpitt?

None of my goals are marked, but then none of my type 2's or 3's are marked either, only the type 1's have the GEM ENGLAND 'post-mark' type moniker on the bases. However I may have some marked ones in the storage sample, I feel type 1's should/may have come with them? If I have; we'll see them next time

Heay - if you're on Subbuteo turf, you have to use a Subbuteo ball, that's the rules, that is! Ooof!

All late production of the sort Cupitt handled or carried with the exception of the Mary (who had a little lamb) figure which is an earlier transitional-piece in chalky plastic but with glossy paint. More of a size-guide than an attempt to prove the colour thing, if I wasn't sure of the origins of the type 3's there'd be more question marks in the text above - and there's quite a few anyway!

Previously seen but new layout; I've yet to see brown-plastic footballers, then neither have I seen red pop'sters, but their drum-kit is always red, so maybe that's why they didn't get red costumes from Gemodel's 'wardrobe'?

As far as size goes, with the footballers' there is quite a variation from the smallest (dribbling type 3) to the largest (Hong Kong goal keepers) giving a range of around 23mm to 28mm with the different bases.

P is for Pop Music . . . ♩♬ m'Pop, m'Pop, m'Pop-Musik! Talk'a'bout doobie-doo Pop Musik! . . . ♩♫

Picked this quintet up the other day, for a song ('juke-box hero' . . . heh-heh!) I know I have a purple one in storage, but five was too good to pass-up, they're playing pieces from a board game the name of which escapes me but I haven't got time to look it up (timing's all shot to pieces this week!) and I think there may be a sixth (black?) piece missing, or was it a five-player game? I'll dig it out next week.

Pretty clean-cut for pop-stars; I tend to think of them as Cliff Richard'a'likes! Around 54mm and made in a standard model-kit type polystyrene you often find them at shows in the 50p rummage sections with broken or damaged guitar-necks.

Detail shots.

Thought for the day

There used to be a joke that when Elvis died there were x-dozen registered Elvis impersonators or tribute acts, ten years later there were x-hundred registered and ten years after that; x-thousands of the bespangled crooners, and that extrapolating those figures forward, the entire population of the planet would be Elvis impersonators by 2051!

Now - with news of a holographic Roy Orbison back on tour, and Elvis having already had similar treatment, will we one day fill the known universe with the sound of comfy-rock; with the entire population of the human race either impersonating a 50's pop-star, or paying to see a holographic one? Will planets of fake Elvis's launch vast armada's of killer death-ray armed starships against planets of Roy Orbison-a-likes.

Will the night-skies of a thousand star systems be lit-up with the supernova-flashes of intergalactic battle fleets deciding arguments between fans of Supertramp on one side and Supertrooper on the other! And will they all go into battle playing Wagner's Ride of The Valkyrie's? In space; no one can hear you croon!

Or should it be 'Sista', good name for a band; slimmer-sista! Comparison shot; all the others have been seen here at Small Scale World before, trouble-is they are hidden in the tag list under 'Band' I think, which is full of Guardsmen, one day I'll have to re-tag the relevant posts under 'pop music' or something, but we have a couple more HK sets to come and will revisit Gem at some point. Not to forget - rock star Smurfs!

Emirober on the left, two Hong Kong's and a resin 'unknown' (second from right) along with the game piece; centre.

♩♬ New York, London, Paris, Munich - Everybody talk about . . . m'Pop Musik! ♩♫ 

1st May 2020 - The upper five were joined a while later - Courtesy of Glenn Sibald in Australia) with a sixth, pink one, which revealed them instantly to be Tri-Ang as - together - they looked just like the Cops & Robbers figures seen here before!

 

2nd April 2024 - the resin figure is a Cakeboards chap.

C is for Crooning Liver'blokes

Or: M is for More Insects!

There was some anniversary the other day, a photograph book of some kind I believe, I wasn't following the minutiae of the business but I believe it involved that popular Merseyside beat-combo from the sixties - init'bluuurrd!

You see these (or - more usually - part sets of them) on evilBay from time to time and having covered most of the other examples of the plastic plectrum pluckers here at small scale musician's world; I leapt at the chance to shoot this set of bobble-headed, flat-fringed, suited & booted, boy-band'ers.

A tad fuzzy, I'm afraid; much as I remember their output! It's a bit like trying to photograph insects! "♫♪Whay-hey we're the . . .♪♫ ", oh-no - they were monkeys weren’t they!

You could almost use them as pencil tops, but they are quite heavy, so only advisable if you wanted your handwriting to read like one of Donald's tweets . . . WTF? The man's a loon, they elected a loon to the highest office in the land!

The only reason you can't hear the world laughing at the OOH-KAY is because they're laughing louder at the OOH-ess-AY!

Oi, Macca! There's a song in there somewhere?

Thanks to Adrian of Mercator Trading for allowing me to photograph these.

R is for ROCK & ROLL!

We've looked at most of the Hong Kong Beatles and a few other Rock Star types here in the past, here's one that escaped closer attention . . .

. . . The Swingers Music Set - Yeah, Yeah, Yeah!, boxed in all its slightly jazzy loveliness, it's not that rare, but like all the 'Beat Combo' sets does command a premium, especially when in this sort of condition, with the fine mouldings of the mic-stands, the cymbals &etc, all present.

Ladies and gentlemen; May I present for your pleasure, fresh from the top nightclubs of Tokyo, Kowloon Bay and 'Kay-Ell', the world famous, Sino-Japanese Beatles tribute act - The Beatelles!
Like most of these HK sets, they don't claim to be the fab four (the left-handed guitarist is the giveaway), and while none of them really resemble the boys; unlike the other sets these don't even look like Western musicians at all!

Seemingly based on 'The Swingers' we've already seen here (large blue ones) before I knew their title, they are poorer sculpts, but a fuller set, and about the same 66/70mm size, both sets would seem to be following the 'Go-Go Swingers' we have yet to see here, who are smaller and the best sculpts of these HK chaps.

With the three - above mentiond - and another 54mm HK set (in four colours), the named Spanish (Emirobar) and British (Subbuteo) Beatle sets, the board game guitarists (also four colours) and Gem for Culpitt's band (several colours), you can mount quite a festival on your display shelves, add the two types of Beatle 'Bobble-Head' (blow-moulded and styrene) I've tracked down over the years and all you need is love . . . and Nirvana's front man! Or is he from Guns and Roses?

Practicing air-guitar on a beach-inflatable; he's a resin cake decoration, in shops now, probably available from Wilton over the pond, or one of the bigger online cake-decoration suppliers, that only leaves me needing the Mattel Pop 'Cuties'!

Thanks to Adrian at Mercator for letting me shoot the photographs.