E is for Eye Candy - Daleks and Mechaniods

My new camera really seems to struggle to take decent pictures in strong, natural light, especially on the macro setting, which is bloody annoying, especially when you consider it's cost more than every other camera killed by the Blog, put together, its near five-hundred quid, being more than all their forty-to-sixties! And it struggles both with focusing and compensating for the light levels.

 

So I'm already more disappointed by Olympus, than I was by the two Fuji Finepix I started with, before discovering the Nikon Coolpix, with which most of the Blog, to date, has been produced. Not that they were brilliant, they all died (about four or five of them), either from inordinate fluff finding itself into the lens, or components of the battery-housing catches breaking, and two actually went dead, after lens/focus failure.

 

But, it's par for the course, not in modern Britain, but the modern World, they (capitalists) are not interested in the customer, but only in the customer's money, and the customer is no longer first, nor right. We won't get to the stars if we can't build what have become 'basic' electronics, properly, and anyone who's switched (or been forcibly switched) to Windows11 will know we are actually going backwards now.

 

But, enough whinging, I shot these when I was up at the storage unit the other day, and while they're not brilliant shots, they are fun images!

 

Cherilea Daleks and Mecanoids, a pair of each with matching midriff colours! I've since discovered another type of Mechaniod, with handrails running round the 'equator', so my three or four (I think it's three, and enough bits for two crashed ones!), are still only a start!

E is for Exhalenate! Exhalenate! You. Will. Exhalenate!

A bit of a Brucey Bonus, Getretro didn't have anything on display at the NEC which interested me, or wasn't in the older shots seen earlier (previous post), but they did have this floating on high;

 

It's a near-lifesize, inflatable/blow-up Dalek! How cool is that?

 

We may have seen this before, I might have shot it at the London Toy fair a few years ago? But it's not actually in Getretro's inventory any more, being instead their mascot, which they place on the roof-bars of their trade-stands. Wantone!

https://www.getretro.co.uk/

E is for Expelling a Few Myths!

Not exactly the best spacemen ever made, being very toy-like, but in common with
the 60mm Knights from the same Cherilea stable, having a charm all of their own, and as they are quite common, with a relatively convoluted history, worth collecting, for their position on the oeuvre.

 

 

Well, that's a bit metaphysical! I don't have that many, when I had the chance to grab a few I was actually helping someone else collect them, and he snapped up all the good ones, each time, before I could shoot them, but I've collated enough to tell the story.

 

Here are the two main types of Cherilea production, baseless, or based, which helps banish the first myth; that Marx were the ones without bases, while Cherilea had bases. The fact is Cherilea added bases to their own 'pod-feet' designs, as the 70's resulted in the popularisation of 'deep pile' or 'shag' carpets - an abomination of dirt, dust, food and pet-hair storage, which went bald in paths (desire-lines) and rucked-up in the corners as the substrate stretched or broke-up.

Bonus Hugh's Handy Helpful Home Hobby Hint (H6 the 7th!) - the dust from the perished rubber backing, once sieved, makes an excellent scatter material for modelling, and a jar of it lasts for decades longer than the carpets were ever going to! And the stuff left in the sieve, once you've picked out the lumps and hairs and things, makes excellent ballast for model railways!

There were six poses, and this is a mix of originals (top-left/bottom-right) and copies, which we will get on to in a minute, the black-suited chap here always seemed designed to be driving or riding some kind of space-vehicle or hover-bike, with outstretched arms and open hands, but as far as I know nothing suitable was ever released, so he makes the best space-zombie!

Not 'swoppets' in the traditional sense of the word, and, apart from the addition of bases - they never got the move to swivel bases which the khaki Infantry did, with their third series.

 

But they did have clip-on life-support packs/tool belts and plug-in heads with slip-over helmets, I think there were six designs of 'webbing and helmet' so you could technically seek to procure 216 versions, without looking at plastic colour or base/no base, but that would be very boring, these are better held as a small, eclectic 'sample'.

 

Two of the figures are equipped with that old 1950's favourite, the Enfield EM2 experimental/trails bullpup-configured assault rifle, which dates them! Still, they made a few hundred which would have been (might still be) in a store somewhere, why not give them to the Space Corps!

 

In space, no one can hear your 1940's flash-bulb! Variation on a theme, illustrating how much smaller the copies are (second from the left), easy to tell, as they usually have paint highlights absent from the originals, and because they are manufactured from PVC vinyl-rubber, not the polyethylene Cherilea used.

And to the second myth, that Marx 'made' them or 'did' them, they didn't, these figures (the PVC copies) were issued by dozens of importer/jobber's on two, if not three, continents, and were sourced from a Hong Kong manufacturer, in every case except Marx, with no real difference between the batches.

 

Some Marx sets claim Taiwan, however, as the source, but they sourced other stuff from Taiwan, sometimes credit HK and Taiwan on the same packaging, and were - by the time they carried these - importing other stuff from the colony, both from their own factories and from people like Blue Box. These were just another line, just another possible revenue stream, bought-in like others, and from the same source as all the others.

This figure and the similar kneeling pose hark back to earlier sculpts from Ajax/Archer in the 'States and Johilco over here, following the in-space-you-will-need-a-small-piece-of-equipment-on-the-end-of-a-long-lead-plugged-into-your-backback rule! Try running from a bunch of Xenomorphs, carrying that shit!
 

Toward the end they got, first the four-hole sandy bases, then the large 'landscaped' bases also seen on some knights, clearly, deep-pile shag was winning the carpet war!

 

The third myth is more accidental, it was believed for years that the moulds had gone-on to Tibidarbo in Italy, but I suspect the Italians just bought a lot in, as they seem to have had a lot with the ovoid-cartouche bases, in green-sand-silver/two-hole and sand/four-hole, but none of the earlier baseless production, nor any of the late, large, marbled-base examples. Nor have the mould tools magically turned-up in Italy ever?

Comparison between the foot-marks of the baseless figures, Hong Kong vinyl-rubber copy on the left, polyethylene Cherilea original on the right. Some always claim these as mould-release pin-marks, but I don't think it's always the case, and here, the PVC one may have the small hollows to try and prevent the edge/rim of the pod-foot from curling-up during cooling, post-mould, and causing the underside of the foot to dome, making them even harder to stand up than the British donors!

 

In part included for Pompey Dave, as I told him the other day, that they were on the blog somewhere, when they weren't! And with thanks to Adrian Little for a couple of the shots, and someone whose name I can't find, but who corrected me on the green 'Mechaniod', for that is what they were called!

 

The correction being that I had been told the fully-open/lattice-topped Mechanoids were rarer Dalek command ships, and the alternate open/closed panel ones were common 'UFO's, but apparently that's a fourth myth! They are two of several design variants, which don't have a Dalek-non-Dalek rule, anyway, they are all missing a plug-in ladder, and mine's missing its electronic mast thingy!

To complete the spacey nature of the exercise, two Daleks! I've said in the past I thought my other was black, but it's actually silver, so I have three metallic ones and no black, or flat colour versions. Steven Smith has been posting the most extraordinary collection of them elsewhere, for the last four years, and there's quite a selection, especially of the Mechanoids.

 

It's more of an unmanned-probe isn't it! A quick scaler, the Daleks are pretty good for the 60mm figures, most Doctors (Dr. Whoms!) were about six-inches taller than the scabrous Skaro survival-suits, so baseless Cherilea spacemen are just about the right height.

A Nucorp set, as well as Marx, I've seen them in Larami, Unique and Jak Pak livery I think, and somewhere I have two unmarked-generics from Italy (I think I'd forgotten I'd got one, and bought another from the same seller a few months later!), with a squeeze foot-pump rocket launcher, they are not rare, in either form - HK or UK.
 

We've seen this 1974 catalogue here in full, not that long ago, but here's the 'Astronauts' cropped-out, I consider them 'spacemen' in my universe, due to the whacky webbing/backpacks, helmets and weaponry. It was this era of production which Tibidarbo seem to have received quantities of, mostly these white ones, but also numbers of the pale blue figures.

H is for How They Come In - Sandown - September, Part 2

Continuing/completing the plunder posts from the last Sandown Park toy show, from BP Fairs (the next one is on the 11th of November I think), with the other half of the purchases/acquisitions!

My third Cherilea Dalek, I think I have a black and a sky-blue now (or was it silver? It's on the Blog somewhere!), so with this one a reasonable 'sample'! Although I've read that the plug-in tools are being reproduced, so I'll have to check their quality against the older ones, as it's very clean!

 

Now . . . we've had the above figures before, I think I have more than a baker's dozen now, and with colour variations! Each time we've seen them I've stated I know the game but can't remember it, well, it's Alibi, or "Dennis Wheatley's exciting new game Alibi", published by Geographia Ltd.

 

Below them are three Wardie/Mastermodels OO-gauge figures and two larger figures which will be from British minor makers wagons, carts or milk-floats, still to be attributed, but that will be for another day, there are lots of them!

Odds and sods, including a Timpolin mechanic, original Ral Patha 'fantasaur' and the metal chap, top left, who often turns up (I have a bagful somewhere!) and is a Tootsietoys soldier from the sets with the small die-cast trucks which are the same as the (Charbens?) lorries we saw here years ago - button-searchlight, pom-pom gun or etc.

 

Adrian Little of Mercator Trading found this for me! Having wanted some for years, i've had three come-in this year! Another Milwaukee Zoo marked Mold-a-Rama figurine, this one of a T-Rex, I've seen a similar crested 'Duckasaurus' about the place!

 

I paid over the odds on this and got laughed at by Adrian and Gareth, but I rather liked it, and don't mind, something is worth what you pay for it! Britains village pond, I have the swan and some cygnets for it, I think, so it's got a purpose!

 

And this was dirt-cheap, but seems to be 'all there', a future project will be to finish it/rebuild it, and I'll scan the box in, so next time we can look at it in more depth. But I'm not sure if I'll stick with the fiddly foil-covering the previous owner had embarked upon!

T is for Toy Fair '18 Reports - GaleForce Nine - Own Products

As well as carrying the D&D stuff, GaleForce Nine also carry three gaming systems from Battlefront, but we'll look at them under Battlefront in a day or three, however they do develop their own games and they are rather special, 'cos they've got figures, and we like figures at Small Scale World!

These were the two on show at the London Toy Fair, Firefly and Dr. Who, you see those two on the same shelf and you know something magic this way comes . . . and you're not wrong - Sir or Madame!

Lovely, role playing 28mm, D&D style with shipping containers as the 'dungeons', lovely figures sort of Wild West meets Steam punk meets Blade Runner! Didn't enquire as to games mechanisms, it's about the scenery isn't it! And the figures!

Dead counters are card flats which is a good idea as it makes them less intrusive to continuing play, but they can build-up in  a gory fashion as the mayhem progresses!

Unit six looks like a rather unpleasant screened field-latrine I once knew in Kenya - yes - 'intimately'; the whole battalion was queuing-up for them, we'd been given some scaled fish when we landed in Nairobi the day before, which looked, cut (read 'sawed' or 'didn't cut') and tasted like gone-off, coelacanth might, I imagine!

Another shot and the catalogue 'flyer'. I've missed Firefly, and I think there was another mid/late-1990's late-night sci-fi serial along the same lines (sentient talking ship?), I'd catch the odd episode, but never stuck with the first and missed the other altogether, but I can see the appeal of this game, with its clear elements of several genres. It reminds me of a few favourite graphic novels too!

Ahhh! More NSD's and quite well detailed ones at that, along with that pesky K9-unit! If I understood the sales-rep correctly, there are four Doctors in the game box, with more planned as separate figures or figure sets, with other 'enemies' to be added or with extension-packs if this does well?

Again; the flyer from the catalogue, no inappropriate memories triggered this time, just me cowering behind the sofa while a giant spider clung to the back of Sarah Jane and a bunch of cultists taught me a Buddhist chant! Ohm-Mani-Padme-Hum, Ohm-Mani-Padme-Hum!

I don't think this was on show in London, but it looks fun for Trekkies (or are they Trekkers?), there even seem to be a few figures among all the micro-space ships, but not enough for me to get excited-about until I see it in a charity shop, and games like this never (or rarely - he says; remembering two Golden Compasses in two weeks!) turn-up in charity shops!

R is for Roaring, Roaming, Regulars

There are some folders I could leave permanently in some corner on the desktop; Daleks, motorcycles and 'poopertroopers' are three obvious candidates, but increasingly insects and dinosaurs are appearing on a regular - if casual - rotation here, and today we're back to 'Dinos', all these having come in since the last lot we looked at - less the couple of specifics that appeared over Christmas!

I can't remember when I showed the first three of these (looked it up), but they were cheap for what they are and I've been back for two more 'sets' of three, although I think that's enough, I'm not sure I can get another three out of the choice remaining (actually I don't think I've seen them the last couple of visits) as I tend to avoid the pterodactyls and plesiosaurs - all that flapping of wings and fins might be fine in the sea or the air, but it looks dumb on a shelf or table!

Brian Berke sent these from Big Lots Stores Inc., a while ago; of similar size to the WH Smith (Keycraft) lot above, I quite like the look of them, they have an old-school paint style, blocks of brighter colours, yet the set includes some less common types and seems to be modeled in scale, where most dinosaur sets are same-size or 'box scale' - there's a particularly small one, half-hidden by the flash in the centre of the upper deck. I love the hedgehogosaurus, top left and the little green 'land-plesiosaur' to the bottom-right.

We looked at the cats before Christmas I think, and there are dogs or puppies, but today it's the day of the dinosaurs, courtesy of Wilkinson's (Wilco) and their non-blind 'make sure you've got all three different four's before you pay' bags!

These ARE box-scale and also roughly the same size as various other mini-saurs we've seen here, so; when I get the old ones out of storage we'll have a dino-fest comparing all the similar mini-saurs!

I had more shots than needed so you get more shots than needed . . . hey; it's Google's servers not mine!

The two main shots are also from Brian, but he actually donated them to the blog! I haven't got them out yet as they are leaching that PVC-residue stuff the mini lizard capsule toy is, and until I find a better storage solution for such items I thought it best to leave them in their blister-cave, with the backing-card soaking up the unknown solvent.

They have a finger-tip sized hollow under the throat and can be fired with force at your enemies by pulling the tail back (I haven't the finger-strength to get them as far as Pennsylvania, but I'm happy to try alternative power sources!), indeed; while there is a 'choking hazard' warning on the dual-language (Greenbrier/DTSC - US/Canada) packs, there isn't one warning of little-brother's likely eye-damage!

The other set appeared on Moonbase Central [link] the day after I photographed them, but in Wilco packaging (I think?), I shot a shelfie in The Works as they really weren't worth a pound, being copies of piracies of copies of piracies of copies of old US sculpts from the 1950's or 1960's, and they will turn-up in mixed junk lots a few years hence!

These shelfies are from Brain again, and although the colours appear brighter in the right-hand lot, I think that's down to light-levels and they are the same products, on the left badged to Bely and on the right unbranded and imported into the 'States by JPW.

I also can't tell if they are new sculpts or older moldings, they have the look of vintage dinosaurs about them, also the language on the packaging suggests the same factory - in need of a better translator!

'Animal series design for the children all are fangled and in the high quality welcome you use our products'

'Collect all the style - be more fun' and 'The best welcome gifts for the children'

Another shelfie; I wish I'd bought it now - as I have a thing for Dimetrodons , but I think I was feeling particularly skint that day, they are nice-looking models, and the already relative cheapness of the magazine makes them freer than 'free'!

All the D's - A couple of recent charity shop buys (50p each) meet on the bedcover! The dastardly Dalek has appeared here before I think, but I can't remember the brand - Bluw? While the Dimetrodon dinosaur reinforces the paragraph above! Another nice sculpt from an otherwise anonymous chinasaur manufacturer, anyone recognise the set/brand he's from?

B is for Buck Bucks Ageing . . .

. . . by 400 years and finds a world pretty-much unchanged, but with very stupid robots and the odd spaceship! I didn't think much of the TV series back in the 1980's and the toys which sat on its coat-tails weren't much better, this one being TSR's effort: Buck Rogers: Battle for the 25th Century.

Also a bit of a box-ticker as it's got a big section in/on Boardgamegeek and has been Blogged elsewhere/elsewhen. It's a funny one for another reason; I have the whole set which when I was preparing a few board-game articles for One Inch Warrior (link below) years ago I realised was missing one of the character figures.

At a show in Birmingham (NEC) some chap had a set's-worth of figures in a tub for about 50p per figure, this was about 6/8 years ago, so I picked the gold character figures out, he too only had five, but I thought "Well, chances are!" only to find that actually Murphy dictates that sod's law trumps chances-are, and the missing figure was the same (it's one of the two women but as they are all in storage I can't report which one).

At probably the last Car Boot Sale I attended, also about 6 years ago, I got four in a bag of game pieces, still with the same missing figure, as one of the two absentees! Some time ago, maybe a couple of Plastic Warrior shows ago I picked up another five with one female missing but still didn't know which one, and with the other growing pile in storage, still couldn't blog the whole set!

Then last weekend Gareth brought me a small bag of stuff among which were the full set: 'Good things come to those who wait'! So I can now Blog them, but all the player characters, killer satellites and micro-rocket ships are still in storage, so you win's some you lose some . . . anyway I had fun taking the pictures!

So these are the six character figures (I think the names are with the right piece) each in charge of an army of a different colour in a game with a Risk-type look (the mechanism however, is much more convoluted), the first thing that become clear is that there are two sizes and what looks to be three sculptors across the set (including the two 'army' figures) and I believe there is a naughty reason for this . . .

. . . although I can't pin them down (yet), several of them look familiar, and I suspect they are all lifted from metal sets of the era (the game was issued in 1988), there were tons of companies around '78/82-onwards advertising regularly in the modelling press with this sort of stuff, and I think that's where they come from?

The smaller-scale hooded-girl on the left (Adarla?) for instance, looks very familiar as a role-play 'sneak thief', the equally small guy (Killer Kane?) on the other end of the line-up also seems familiar, while the guy next to him with the 'aytees' jumpsuit and notebook (Doc Huer, supposedly an older man?) looks likely to be based on the Guildford, Surrey dwelling alien - Ford Prefect - from the BBC's TV rendition of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy? Again I seem to remember him from a Hitchhiker's set (not the Denizen Miniatures set) announced in Military Modelling's On Parade or G2?

The 'army builder' figures, I've only got the one big one here, but it's all you need for a post like this!

Again a massive difference in size and sculpting style, with the smaller one looking like he's been taken from a lead/whitemetal, post-apocalypse, Sci-Fi, war-games, street-gang, while the larger one looks like he's from a 28mm Role Play range, and possibly based on some cartoon figures from Heavy Metal, the graphic novel magazine, I also remember a set of space warriors called 'Doomguards' who looked a bit like this figure, is he a Drilliet or Mobius character?

If you followed the BBG link though, you'll know he's meant to be bigger...genetics!

The only contemporary plastics were the Matchbox Adventure 2000 figures (ironically copied by HG Games in their equally poor Buck Rogers set), one of whom has the same hussar-jacket buttoning (which has a special name I know, but: no Internet at home, library in storage!) as one of the Buck Rogers figures, they (the Matchbox) were also a bit bigger yet.

Although, giving it a moment's thought - as well as possible connections with the TV series and maybe lead figures, along with the Matchbox design similarities it must be said; both the main TV characters also bear more than a passing resemblance to the equivalent figures in the Airfix 54mm set, also contemporary with both the TSR and Matchbox issues, and containing other figures which paid homage more to both Dr. Who characters and members of Blakes 7's motley crew.

Playing on the plains of Planet Bhoringcova! Daleks with mind-slaves (why not - Cybermen seem to have them these days!) maneuver into attack formation, a mixed group of older (but much better) Daleks and Cybermen surround a last stand of the characters, and . . . "Can you tell me where I am . . . and when, please?"

Sometimes in Picasa you highlight say, two Merit shots, you want to collage, then, accidentally - or absentmindedly - hit the collage tool for the set of photo's in the folder above - the result was so abstract that I thought it suitable to subject you to!

I realised afterwards that the gold-backed character line-up has the look of Nigella Fáràgê (rymes with c**t) meeting The Trumpton (war with Iran now odds-on!) in that wholly overblown and tasteless vestibule last week!

A man who decorates his corporate HQ like a set on Dr. Who, circa 1983 has just been elected President of Oohessay, but then, I guess he has kept his hair-style from 1983! Mullets and war, with sexism and rusty pick-up trucks, there's your end-of-year predictions for what to look forward to in 2017, from the oracle at Waltii, get that tinned food in now.

If any of the metal guys recognise the sculpts let the rest of us know, if not I'll do a little digging myself in a couple of weeks (I happen to know I have four days of unlimited free Internet coming-up - whoohoo!) and see what I can come up with!

U is for Unmade!

I have never seen such a desirable collectable is such pristine condition, the term 'Mint' is mightily abused these days, especially on evilBay, but this really is an absolute minty, mint, minter in mint-condition . . .

. . . although that's almost sad, as one feels it should be made-up to patrol a mantelpiece or display-cabinet shelf, someplace, gravelly uttering the iconic 'Exterminate'!

Original price 20p! I know what I'd do with a time machine and it doesn't involve dinosaurs, Alexander the Great, Shakespeare or the pyramids, it involves a quick trip to Webb's News, circa 1965! Although pence is a '70's pricing...hummm, ohgod! It was reduced to clear!!!!

This is another 'guest post' courtesy of Brian Berke for which I am only providing the blurb!

Only 16 parts including 3 wire-axles it could be completed in five minutes I recon! Ten with trimming/fettling of flash . . . although I can't see any!

It's faintly amusing that the artwork gets the head so right and the body so wrong, while the kit gets the body correct and then fails on the head-shape? Brexit and Remain, Trump and Clinton, educated liberal or grumpy fish-wife, we all want a better World, a better Britain or a better life, but oh boy; are we absolutely going to build a dog's breakfast!

Basically it's the commercial battery-operated model (also by Marx) offered as a kit, I don't know if it came first, or if there are the battery lever slots in the back of the body - there don't appear to be any locating slots, shelves or attachment-points for the battery housing, wires or mechanism on the interior walls of the moulding, so I'm guessing the kit came first, and then Marx produced the 'readymade'?

The Crescent 'scale'ing' berserker (seconded to UNIT of course!) gets his ore in early, while the Dalek is still asleep! It's a big toy when assembled and we looked at some dodgy photographs by yours truly a while ago here.