M is for Moon Scout

That's Moon Scout, Google, it might be Moonscout or Moon-Scout, what do the bot's think? Moon. Scout. There's quite a few Moon Scout's out there, this one is from the New Bright Industrial Co., Ltd., of Kowloon City Road, Hong Kong, purveyors of the finest Moon Scouts, and the latest addition to Operation Wind-up Russet Twig!

 

I bought it without really looking at it, as it was obviously in excellent condition, however, there was one disappointment; the driver, so obvious in the artwork, and who would have rendered the whole thing a Jeep sized 1:32nd'ish vehicle, was not actually there, the clear-red cab hiding the mechanism of the walkers! Boo!

 

Which means you can drop the scale, to a four or six-man mobile office/command centre or 'people-carrier', around the 30-40mm mark, something which is reinforced by the scale of the safari-ladder on the rear of the vehicle, which also makes it around the same scale as the Soviet walker we looked at here

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2019/04/p-is-for-popovs-patented-plastic.html

 

Which, obviously calls for a fuller comparison when they are brought together, but which makes the Soviet toy the reconnaissance 'Scout' to this follow-up bruiser! I've seen white-bodied versions of this, as per the box-art, on evilBay, but frankly, the silver-chrome effect is 'spacier'!

 

Unlike the clockwork of the referenced one above, this one is packing batteries, and with more 'up and down' movement in the legs, I'm confident it will outperform the Russian effort, as our tanks are outperforming theirs, in Ukraine, right now!

 

Both are quite common, I've passed-up two of the Soviet offerings in the last few years, unless I see one in the box, I don't need another, while I've been passing these, usually somewhere down the back-wall, at Sandown Park for over 30-years! Now I've a boxed one, box-ticked!

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!

D is for Duracell Durabeam

Another in the occasional series of nostalgic posts, and a funny one as I found the add' while scanning other stuff from the colour supplements going to recycling, when clearing the house out, back in '22, and doing so while sitting on the end of my bed nearest the scanner, with the actual torch, still working (not switched-on!), on the mantle-shelf behind, less than an arms reach away!

I don't remember many adverts for torches when I was a kid, this would have been from 1982, or thereabouts, I can't remember the date now, but there's chapter and verse on them, here. I do vaguely remember their being a larger one, but this little one was the classic, most UK homes in the 1980's had one tucked away somewhere!

 

The iconic black/yellow-highlighted design launched a thousand copycats and a - continuing - generation of like-designed Duracell's, with several of these being so-branded, the rubber one lying on the left, obviously, but a couple of the others, too, I think, they've gone off to storage with everything else! I think the one with a grey seal is none-Duracell, and the squared-end one is an Eveready?

 

And, believe me, this is about a third of the torches I've ended-up with, having now, the accrued torches of two lifetimes, my late Mother's and mine! All torches used to become temperamental, either because the tensioned copper or brass conductor plate/s at the switch, or between batteries would lose their springiness and not make good connections, or because acid-damage, from an old, dead-battery would kill the conductivity altogether!

I think my Durabeam (centre) was a Christmas stocking present, and one of the last crimbo-stockings I ever got, probably that 1982 xmas? And it still works, with quite a decent light, it has facilitated many Blog Posts, finding stuff in the attic!

 

Now, I have two pen torches, both LED, both still only two AA-batteries (same as the Durabeam), one a mini Maglite (about 2.5 inches long) which I keep in my driver's bag to find door numbers from the comfort of my cab, the other a cheapo' lookie-likie which I keep in the car, mostly to help fill my vape, or change its battery in dark lay-byes! And either of them produce a better light than all the above would, if used together!

Oh, and Energiser are a bunch of phuqing wankers! My own personal opinion, of course!

Z is for Ziggurat!

Well, I wouldn't have bored you will my travails over the last few days, you don't want to tip your 'eemies' off, but suffice to say a cancer scare has been downgraded to a 'phew', with a slightly ominous "Get it checked if it doesn't go away" caveat. Anyway, to celebrate my lighter mood this evening, here's one of the odder things in the kit catalogues of the 1960's, Imai's M2000T SF Ziggurat, is it a plane . . . yes! Is it a tank . . . yes, is it a SAM-missile T.E.L., yes! Is it goddamned-barking-mad? You betcha!

I've actually been looking for it for several years, but I thought it was in one of the UPC catalogues and when I couldn't find it there, I was stumped, but it just turned-up in a smaller AHM one!

 

It seems to be a mash-up of Imai's Scud-A ('Missile tank BB3' tracks and road-wheels), some Thunderbirds elements and their own fictional SAM 5 rocket launcher parts, so probably around 1:24th scale . . . 'ish! Relatively clip-together, and you can have one for less than 2,000-quid;

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/404657806927

 

I don't normally like linking to evilBay stuff, as it doesn't tend to hang-around long, after it's sold, these days, but I think this may remain a hot-link for some time, unless there's an idiot out there keen to be parted from his money! And $4.98, would be the best part $45 today, a lot of money?

H is for Hexbug . . . Not? Junkbots

These are a real oddity, marked-up to Hexbug, but not taking Hexbug's as motive power, or for added play-value, so I can only guess, they were another 'line' in the Hexbug 'range', designed to tie-in with the declared STEM aims of Innovation First International for their Hexbug branding?

 

Remaindered or 'on clearance' at TKMaxx last Christmas (2022/3), these were back in TKMaxx again this Christmas , just gone, with different packaging (I didn't make another purchase), suggesting they had been tried again somewhere, or more stock had been found/located in the intervening 12-months, I don't know?

 

What I do know, is I can illustrate/testify to several reasons why they might have failed, and this is very-much in the we-buy-this-shit-so-you-don't-have-to department, rather than any advertisement to rush out and find some?

 

Immediate problems are presented by the ripped elastic band, fashioned as a chain and padlock, the padlock is both non-functional and depicted as open! The container is modelled to represent a North American dumpster, although such flat-top designs are getting as common as the roll-lid ones over here now . . . we will go to our extinction homogeneously!

 

One of the models had two accessory bags for small parts, joined with hairs of extruded plastic, from some production problem, and with several smaller pieces loose in the box? 

 

A [sealed, so no replacing the-] battery-operated light unit was included with one, which was not part of the model, not found on the instruction, but clearly a 'spare' for use in the line? While fit was poor on a fair number of the component's link-portions, and the two very small pieces above (one from each of the two I purchased) were so badly manufactured (you can see the rough finish of the orange 'flower' clearly) they wouldn't locate in the designated position.

However, with perseverance I did manage to produce the two, almost to the instructions, without breaking anything, although a couple of pieces did get damaged/bent in the task, and wouldn't survive too many more constructions/dismantling?

 

Any interactivity/swapability between the two was limited, due to the various joins/ball-sockets/studs being different diameters/dimensions, and/or, therefore, location specific. As you can see, I got (blind boxes) a Dino-bot and a Seal/Sea Lion-bot!

 

Final criticism - I would say the colour-palate was/is pretty uninspiring, without being actually stressed/weathered to represent junk?

 

So, one can see that this line seems to have been half-thought, half-executed and then neither properly supported, nor improved? Glaring errors like poor fit, were never corrected, and the fact that toys dated 2020, were remaindered so soon, is not a mystery.

 

What is a mystery (to me) is why were these 'Series 2', was a 'Series 1' better? And was it a 'Series 3' which I didn't even look-at properly, a few weeks ago, which was being cleared a year later, and which are probably still in some TKMaxx's, if you want to try them for yourselves - I really wouldn't recommend it?

 

And, if the four or five-quid I paid in TKMaxx, was a clearance price, they were surely overpriced for blind-box/capsule novelties in the first place? I am reminded of the - much better executed - Horrible History figures and their short life, the powers that be (the board, the PR Company/ies, the marketer/s), don't care if they are stuffing landfill with this shite, so long as they sell enough 'units' first.

 

I love the space station, before I've even had a proper looks at it, and the insects look very good, and fun, but this is unadulterated, ephemeral, opportunistic shite, and would disappoint, from a Christmas stocking, damaging the brand, no wonder they sold their toy division to Spin Master!

H is for Hexbug Space!

So the reason I knew about Hexbug (previous post), to spot them at the Toy Fair, in a way that without, I would normally have walked straight past them, zoning them out as multicoloured plastic shite - how many other useful things have we missed that way, like looking for your key by doing 'Radar' eyes on the hall and somehow failing to register them on their hook by the door! . . .

 

. . . is - I digressed a bit there - because a few months earlier I had found a nice little spaceship in a Charity Shop's 50p bin, and taken it home to ask the wise coves of Brain Heiler's Faceplant group if anyone knew what it was and/or who made it.

 

The turret was a plug in and there was clearly room for more.

 

 Amelia A. Baranet answered the call not only with an ID but also with a link to the Hexbug Nano Space Cosmic Command Habitat review, which seems to have been deleted, a small chat ensued and it turned out several 'Stallions' had them, or their kid's did, and loved them, but I had already gone-off to evilBay, where I found one going cheap!

 

 

 

Turns-out, all the blue and orange bits are interchangeable with the mounting points of the buildings, vehicles and 'ship'. While, you get two Hexbugs, in way cooler colours than the everyday ones we looked at in the previous post. It's all a bit Lego or Tente, but without the studs ruining the lines of the finished constructions.

 

There are other sets, and because this one then went straight to storage (autumn of '21), we will have a box opening post in a year or two, perhaps when the existing Internet images have died-down a bit, but for now, there's tons out there if you look, and I think it'll go well with the little 20mm'ish Giant spacemen and bug-eyed Aliens?

H is for Hexbug!

Just a quickie before I go to work, a post from 2022's Toy Fair, which clearly I haven't got out in a timely manner, because it really doesn't matter! I won't be going this year at all, although I think it was last week anyway, so I didn't go this year!

Hexbug and Hexbug Nano (or Nano Hexbug) are brands of Spin Master, bought by them with all properties this time last year, from Innovation First International, who continue to trade with other non-toy brands, and which has, at its core, small battery-operated 'robotics' which move about and provide motive power for various lines, aimed both at STEM for younger kids, more generl fun toys, and pet novelties.

I'd become aware of them a year or so earlier, following a charity-shop purchase (more in a subsequent post), so was interested to see them at the show, but as you can see, little to interest Loyal (or casual) Readers, beyond the insect carcases being quite realistic as stand-alone models, without their Hexbug 'innards'.

Catalogue imagery, well, more of a trade 'flyer' really!

Packaging of the basic Hexbug units, in one's or sixes.

The insects

As you can see they are very good, and follow real life patterns of 'wee bestie'

Larger arthropods, and a sort of gecko-dragon thing!

Insect packaging also comes in singles or multiples

Cat toys!

K is for ♪♫♫♪ Keep on Rocking in the Free World . . . ♪♪♫♪

From the nostalgia files comes . . . 

 

. . . the smallest transistor radio of it's age, Japanese of course!

 

Believed to date from 1966 ('ish) and, while badged to Sharp Electonics, possibly have been made in the subsidiary Hayakawa Electric Co.Ltd. plant? It takes one AA-battery along the bottom, to leave room for all seven transistors! Yours for thirty-quid on feebleBay if you can get any sound out of it, I can get static out of this, so it's still alive, but I'm not sure if it's got it's hearing-aid switched-on!

 

This stuff used to be on Tommorrow's World, now it's yesterday's gimmick.

B is for Battling Micro Tank . . . No 'S'

Because to get the advertised/titled Battling Micro Tanks, you need to get at least two sets, although there are three tanks to find! I found this in 2021, although it's copyrighted 2000, to a Teamforce Co. of the UK, and the contents will be all-Chinese.

 

A Sherman and Tiger still to be found, all sharing the same running-gear, but the Sherman having outer flats to represent the distinctive suspension system of the M4, but with only two per side it looks like a Stuart/Honey with ideas above its station!

The Mk. V Panther of this set. It's a tad deformed too, but holds the look of the real one reasonably well, just a little too wide for its length. They could have hidden the power button a little better, by placing it in the cupola?

 

The figures, around 28mm, are Airfix copies and resemble the ones being issued with Majorette military sets around the same time, with heavy bases, but new poses I think, however they could both be from the same subcontractor? Similar figures were issued by Skylark a few years ago, but they were very poor quality copies-of-copies.

The trees are also a bit Airfix'y - from the Zoo play set?

The batteries have all gone 'acid burst' and should probably be discarded, but they are pretty safe in their tray and I think I left them for the time being? Quite unusual to find 'Batteries Included'!

The radio-control unit is disguised as a grenade, which brings memories of Galoob's line of Secret Army Supplies!

A is for The Avengers . . .

. . . the proper ones, not the silly American comic ones! Although I was a New Avengers chap, myself; we didn't have much telly when we were kids (no loss - I avoid it by choice now), so I tended to catch Purdy and Co., later on, around friends houses, or after we got a rather smart (for its day) Bush colour TV as we hit teenage-hood.

Tom Clague sent me this a few weeks ago and I totally forgot it despite getting excited at the time and taking screen caps (below) from the clip (above), but it is fascinating for having the rare'ish Airfix 1st version Paratroops in 1:32nd scale, also obvious is the Marx battery-operated tank, Britains pack-gun and 25lbr's, Deetail (?) and Herald infantry.

Spot the conversion!

Marx

 

Deetail mortar team or Swoppet?

 

Herald with Naval Gun? 

I've also added the relevant screen-capcha and the clip to the relevant page for that Airfix set. Thanks Tom, brilliant!

 

* *****     ***     *****     *  **  *     *****     ***     ***** *

Half an hour later - I posted this elsewhere, FOR FUN, highlighting the Airfix para's and Marx tank, because the Airfix are an uncommon find, and most British kids (and I mean MOST) had that tank, or the sand, blue or grey versions, or some Hong Kong knock-off of it, back in the day - only for some pointless waste of oxygen to point out that most of the figures were Herald! Well; no shit Sherlock! Obviously, I didn't know I had to cover my arse to the Nth degree, by listing the obvious stuff; but here goes nothing . . . 

The mortar team looks to be Britains Deetail in the fuzzy screen-cap', but the video should be too early for such a scenario, so it must be the Swoppet one, which also had quite a bright-green base but not as square as it looks in the shot? Which means there's probably a few other Swoppets on the table with the Herald Khaki Infantry?

 

The Marx tank had a fixed-turret but is missing it's plug-in barrel. There is at least one Britains Pack-Howitzer, which - again due to the dates - is probably the earlier fully-folding one (a later version had fixed legs - less breakages, less irate parents on the 'phone!), along with three or more 25lbr's and a late model of Britains' Naval Gun (which in one form or another had been in their catalogues since the 1930's) which kills the Brigadier.

There were also several plastic-looking vehicles, a fly-wheel motor tank he directs at the mountain, a (Pull-back motor?) jeep and possibly an armored-car at one point (also pull-back power?) which are probably all Hong Kong, possibly Jimson, Telsalda or larger Blue Box types.

 

I think the board is painted Foamex^TM, but it could be a coated particle board, with the lines applied with Lettraset Lettraline or possibly Unipart vinyl pin-striping, but I'm just not sure!

If I've missed anything else, I really don't care, perhaps one of the fastidiously humorless, tediously fuckwitted of this parish can let us know . . . TJF? I honestly thought he'd managed a Christmas without having a pop, but he just can't stop himself!