K is for Kinder Cam Toys

A common trope with Kinder since the start, is toys with offset, angled or split axles or studs (offset cams), whereby the offset section/s drive other components, which produces novelty action as the toy is pushed or pulled over a surface, not much blurb needed, so here's a few I shot earlier!

Group shot!

Note different style of ice-cream cart with lower sides.

C is for Chris's Autumn Parcel - Intro'

OK, it looks like the Canoes will be January now, if they are lucky, it's not that I've got tons of stuff in the long queue, that's a given (!), it's that I've lots in the medium and short queues too!  And if I don't clear the Christmas stuff - or at least some of it - it will be hanging around for another year, while I must catch-up with both donations and show-reports (Sandown and London are sitting here!), so I'm going to try and alternate Chris's donation with nativity stuff first, and then we'll see what's left of December!

Signed for and collected the keys to the flat today, so I'll be busy in the background getting this place empty! Made some space in the storage units at the weekend . . . sorting cold stuff in minus-3, in a steel shipping container, while losing the light is no fun I can tell you! But it keeps me young!

The seen elsewhere shot; all Chris's donations have been fantastic, however I get the feeling he's got more of a measure of the Blog and it's needs over the years, as this one was particularly super, with lots of unusual figures, rare gap-fillers, one-off's, novelties and things which, while we may have looked at them before (Tyrolean weather-clock figures for instance), will undoubtedly enhance future posts on the same subject.

One of the things I didn't shoot separately for the other posts (I think we're going to get 8 or 9 posts out of the whole box) was a bag of Kinder bits, and while I'm not sure if the Esquimaux see above was in the earlier post, mentioned the other day in a follow-up, it might have been; it's been a pretty chaotic last few months!

I actually picked up a few the other day with that yellow Arctic denizen, but the two medieval crossbowmen in that other lot were as brittle as hell, so when we get round to them, they will need a bit of strategically-placed blue-tack to be remotely photogenic, but I have others!

While the 40mm horseman here needs his paint removed, they also suffer from brittleness, perticularly of the thin parts (from day one!), so that'll be a careful, or gentle job, once I'm settled elsewhere.

A bag of bits on the left (nice barrel) and a bag of Giant/Giant-like bits also went to the mighty* sorting zone without a closer look. The green blob is one of those palm-squirters from a Christmas cracker, several bits of meat were rather intriguing, the red thing is a petrol-pump and I'm loving the Scot's Monarch's Arms, paper sand-castle flag . . . there's a tub-full of similar items somewhere in the stash, waiting for their 'overview' moment!

* mighty because of its daunting size, not because it's powerful!

This was a lovely thing to find in a toy parcel! It's a self-published book from 1997, the author goes through the building of a home-injector, part-by-part and it's real Heath-Robinson stuff (or, because the author is an American; Rube Goldberg'ian stuff!) , I aspire to have a go, but I'll need a workshop, and probably can't run to one on what will be my budget in the Spring, but I was thinking of joining one of these craft/tech cooperatives, so maybe yet?

Cheers Chris; another fantastic lot . . . I'm off and running; 'combat' stuff next to keep the fighty-bitey bits as far from the 25th as I can!

F is for Follow-up - Esquimaux Explorers

A quick follow-up to October's post on Kinder Arctic subjects, as I managed to pick up a colour variant on Friday, which we can have a quick shufti at! And re, that previous post's title, it's bloody cold now, they recon minus-7° tonight, which may be balmy for some of the Northern/Continental Loyal Readers, but it's pretty rare in sodding Hampshire!

This one is all a primrose yellow, I could look up the code and value but I think I've made that point, and it'll all be on the A-Z's one day, or at least that's the plan! He comes with an ice-axe and husky dog, rather that the skis-&-sticks of the previous example

K is for Kinder's Kooky Karacters!

And . . . so to the missing post, I'd had the first two figures in the 'Halloween 2022' folder for a year or so, but when I started to collate all the other kwik-Kinder posts we've had in the last month or two, I renamed it and moved it to the Kinder section (2032), so it's been sitting five lines below the Halloween section (2033) in the Picasa index for the whole time I couldn't find it . . . sometimes I'm so dumb I'm a danger to myself; I don't care if I'm a danger to others, that's their lookout!

The left-hand pumpkin-head is by Zeta Espacial Sa., circa-2006, while the right-hand figure is a plug-together from Kinder, also 1980's (ran for a while) which came in various colours some of which the Germans get very excited about, but only if they know what they're looking for, they can all still be 99p on evilBay, or less as part of a mixed lot!

These I think were late 1980's or 1990's, and when I say "think", I mean I don't care! I've got the book back here to give chapter and verse, as I did the other night (to make a point), but really, if you need the code, estimated value and date, go find a Kinder site, there are dozens of very good ones.

Anyway, around that time there were two or three of these 'styrene sets of 'solids', which are of Ghosts doing everyday things, sometimes with a twist; painting one side of a wall from the other, sometimes not; reading a book?

While these are more recent, but include the same ghost trope with other characters, including a 'devil dog' chasing . . . . not sure, his own Ghost, a Ghostly rat? It's not clear! Likewise; "What's in the bag, sinister guy; kittens to drown"? And why is there a Werewolf in a bright-yellow flasher-mac? Very odd - is some of this Kinder shite!

Close-ups of the previous set, five of six and what is it . . .  a rabbit Ghost? All the pale bits - Ghosts, chased animal and sack are glow-in-the-dark, and I think the Werewolf has a cam-wheel connected to his working jaw? Some of these were shot a while ago and I didn't take many notes!

Not so Halloween'y, but it's a little Devil, the joke is he's stepping on the angel's scales to trick him into thinking he's overweight, but as he (the Putti)'s floating on clouds he should weight nothing! The set was of various mean-spirited actions by similar Imps!

These were the 2000's I think and again there may have been more than one set of Vampirellis, a very Italian-sounding title, because they are ultimately an Italian product.

These are odd; they are modern'ish 12/15 years back, maybe less? They are sealed Ghosts in a glasslike clear plastic, before they are sealed a very small 3 or 4mm's dice is placed in the cavity, so you can learn gambling!

Except it's quite hard to read the dice, and they sort of look like they are Ghosts of specific things, while also being pretty abstract designs, and the 'Championgho*st' graphic is given a medieval banner twist.

Another one from the MPG years (current), and also rather whacky stuff, almost channeling the daft plastic model-kits of Aurora, Revell and Pyro's 'Ed Roth'-esque and grotesque horror/surf-culture, back in the day, but very small!

It seems to me however, that while there's always something interesting around (Barbie and Superhero figures in recent years), the whole concept has lost something since MPG took over the management of the - now web-linked - toys? I guess trends, tastes and fashions move on!

I haven't even looked these up, recent additions; I think the one on the left is Kinder, but the one on the right may not be? I really don't care; it'll all come out in the wash, and while accuracy at that level will be needed on the A-Z Blogs, it's not so necessary here where narrative nonsense is fine!

Anyway, that's the [fun] horror stuff I've got for now, it's a few hours later than I said it was about to be in an eMail about three, four (?) hours ago, but i had to go out, then the cat puked - very Halloween! Something else tomorrow, and cheers to Brain, Chris and Theo for the other stuff earlier today. Happy Halloween!

T is for Tom & Jerry!

Twice in a week would give you the impression the world is awash with Tom & Jerry figurines, but with a few erasers out there somewhere maybe, and the inevitable sticker sheets, this could be about it, with the other day's pencil tops, Corgi's battling carts and the Marx figures we looked at a lo-o-o-o-onng time ago! Top of second image down.

Actually, a quick search on feebleBay reveals lots of Tom & Jerry stuff, of which several are from Kinder and we will look at the 'swoppet' plug-together's (Oh, are they stick-figures?) some other time, but these Kinder solids were to-hand the other day so I took a few quick shots.

All from the same set, we get them picnicking and surfing! Issued in most jurisdictions at various times between 2003 (K) and 2006 (MTG), they aren't particularly uncommon and 'book' at about €3, but check the cake-decoration section (or whatever your trick is for finding stuff) of evilBay for unattributed ones and you'll find them cheaper! They are all two- or three-part clip-together.

Five of eight, I'm missing Tom bar-b-que'ing and both of them weight-lifting, but listing things I'm not showing you is a bit silly isn't it? Listing things someone else had already shown and which I can't show you would be even sillier, huh?!!

S is for Sloppy Research?

Was he going to have a pop at me, but got so old, stoned on med's or drunk that he totally forgot to? Hahahahahahaha! You can't make it up, and there he is scuttling out from under my shadow to tread on my coat-tails again! There are bars in Berlin where my arse is a bigger legend.

 

I have these, as I think I mentioned more than once when covering this stuff over the last few weeks, at the moment they are back in storage, but they'll come out again and and I still won't be that interested in the dates, except on the A-Z entry, if and or when I get around to it!

 

I also have scans of a rival publication which employed square thumbnails of the figures rather that the line-ups in these, while we covered Paul Revere here, 12 years ago - with pictures! Too funny!

I is for Is It Just Me, or Is It Getting Chilly?

We had two heat-waves here, the first breaking three-year old 'new' records by 3°, a trend which if it continues would render large parts of Europe, Asia and the SE of Britain uninhabitable by humans - in a heat-wave - within about 20 years? But after the second, not so hot but more humid, so equally uncomfortable heat-wave, the weather has gone rapidly downhill, and it's got quite chilly, but then I guess it is October, maybe the summer just lasted too long!

Anyway, seems like a good excuse to get the cold-weather gear out and check it over, these are all Kinder; 1980's/90's, and they are ready for anything the climate throws at them! 20/25mm at the top, 28/30mm compatible in the middle and a decet stab at 54mm with the 'steckfigur' at the bottom, who has lost the backs of his skis, and his boots . . . sniff! The silver blob was off some cartoon thing; long-lost.

I have a blue/white one who has his boots, so if I ever find the missing ski sections I will be able to re-shoot them both in some sort of order? All polyethylene, and with moveable arms/articulated waist, they are a useful addition to Timpo and/or Britains polar explorer/Esquimaux/Inuit sets.

There's the colour reversed version of this on evilBay at the movement, he's more of a novelty toy, and winter-sports rather than polar explorer or native hunter, but fun, Kinder, polystyrene and possibly a bit earlier, although still 1980's I think?

A is for Audit of Alien Astrofarers!

Yeah, well, with well-over four thousand posts now, the thesaurus needs to be dug out occasionally! It's a brief look at a small sample of Kinder and Kinder-like Aliens to finish a flying visit to the subject!

One of the first shots I took off evilBay about 18 years ago (the date on the image is the 1st of January 4501?!!), these were late 1980's I think, and there were equally cartoony, mounted knights and cowboys in the line, I should have a couple somewhere, but they weren't in the main pile when it pased accros my bows the other day; Robot's on Robot horses!

They are small, about 28/30mm equivalent, but the horses - particularly - are styled very-much like the Hing Fat 'Galaxy Cowboys', while the riders are styled like Arco's or Pikit/Gordy Bi-Tron robots so could be used as scout/reconnaissance units in an army of rack-toy robots!

These seem to be quite common, in that I have three and keep seeing them on feeBay, but the other item in the pair/set seems harder to track down, it was a similar balance/move toy. Three aliens in mini-saucers, 2000's I think, up to no-good!

This was from 2002, and while the creature looks like the Aliens in the previous mobile, the fact that the other member of the pair has polar-bears (with the biggest in-scale mushroom-house you ever saw!), he may be meant to be a more earthly thing like a caterpillar? But he's taking photographs, so I suspect an Alien reconnaissance team for the saucer aliens!

2010's for these and the next lot, I meant to get more of them at the time, but budget constraints and the randomness of 'blind-bag' purchasing curtailed that idea! I don't know if they are Aliens or robots or battle-suits, but they were quite cool given how shit Kinder toys got for a while once MPG had taken-over the toy side of the Ferrero chocolate eggs.

They are semi-action figure with swiveling legs and ball-socket arms to give them a surprising level of articulation for such small things and - of course - the arms can be swapped around between 'platforms'.

These came out at around the same time as the previous lot and are only spoiled by the googley-eyes which could be removed to make them more spacey 'mech's'? They are more sort of junkyard, or anthropomorphic robots? I can't remember if there's an element of interchangeability with them and didn't try while photographing, I think if there is any, it's minimal and accidental?

Another one from Metro (Leoni), and I can't remember if I found him somewhere, or if he was in the lot from Peter Evans, but thanks to Peter anyway, he gave me a bag-full, most of which may never appear here! You never-know though; there's - hopefully - plenty of RTM's, or capsule 'round-ups' still in my future?

Not sure if he is meant to be a robot, an Alien or an ice-monster? And he's the sort of 40mm LRG (soft rubberised polymer, or 'elastomer') you will find credited to gum-ball machines, because he was to be found in gum-ball machines, when he wasn't in a budget chocolate egg!

B is for Bruder . . . Kinder, Hans Postler et al . . .

And to be honest, Giodi should have Kinder's slot above as they made them, and they don't only seem to have supplied Kinder, but other people as well, while my 'third source' is Cose Progetti Promozionali, who may be designers (albeit copyists) as well as importers?

This is a very small sample of the Bruder mini space vehicles, and there are quite a few more, but this is an overview which will call on the past finds of Moonbase Central too! As far as we know Bruder were first with these as part of a wider range of otherwise civil vehicles in a distinctive red-yellow-orange-blue-green scheme.

Woodsy found this set in Rosita branding from Spain, which seems to contain Bruder product in different colours; Bruder state on their website that the confectionery trade were good customers for their small toys, so they clearly did a fair-bit of contract manufacturing.

And here's a Hans Postler set (last image) in standard Bruder colours

And there's more here

While these are the Giodi for Kinder copies, again, not sure it's all of them, but you can see (with the lander) how reverse colour versions are available. Although when I say copies, they are all new vehicle designs, but based on and aping the Bruder colours.

Flight-line; Bruder and two Giodi/Kinder, folding/swing-wings, the Bruder are about 50% bigger by mass, and probably wouldn't fit in Kinder eggs, or at least some of the parts wouldn't?

Giodi clone; the paper slip states Cose Progetti Promozionali (Modena, Italy - 'Promotional project things') and they are straight-out copies, slightly smaller still, you can see a few differences between the Giodi and Cose (bottom right), but they are the same design, and made in China (possibly the Tennison Trading in the links above?) so imports which other capsule providers may have handled.

Interestingly some are copies of Giodi (swing-wing sample), some are copies of the Bruder models - the Lander for instance.

H is for Holding-out Against Rome!

Everyone's favourite Gauls - unless they are emotionally dead from the toes up! My sample of the recent (that's my: forgotten-how-old-I-am 'recent') Kinder egg Asterix figures, not a full sample, but this is a rush post - I don't know if it showed; but I had scanning problems on Thursday night which put me behind and left the weekend's and this post a bit rushed!

Some of the main characters, Obelix, the fishmonger, Getafix making his potion and Fabula, the girl who Obelix is always flirting with! These are all from the 2000 set Asterix and the Romans.

The Romans being named, from the left; Centurion Numerus Clausus, and legionaries Marcus Konfus and Claudius Lapsus But they are from the German insert and may have differed here, to reflect names in the British edition of the original graphic novel?

The Claudius variation (with sword) may be from a later set, or a nation-specific issue? There was an earlier set: Asterix in America, but I rather lost track of Kinder after around 2008.

Dogmatix gets the chief's shield (and bearers!), there was a separate sculpt of the chief (Majestix) standing on his shield, itself resting on the legs of an upturned table!

I think there is a mix of English, German and French 'original' names/titles above, blame the Internet!

F is for Fontanini - Part 1 - Introduction

A surprisingly unsung company given that I would rate them with Britains, Elastolin, Marx or Airfix for their importance to the history of toy figures (in composition, plastic and resin); for the variety of their output, their connections to other companies with premium licenses, sculpt-swaps and shared output through the farming-out of their chief [and other] sculptor [/s] and through the wide range of their products blatantly pirated (as Garratt puts it) in Hong Kong in the 1960's and 1970's.

They pretty well got everywhere, tourist traps; breakfast cereals and coffee, washing-powders and cake decorations; high-end collectables and Hong Kong carded rack-toys, yet because they were never really a dedicated 'toy soldier' maker, you may have crossed their path without even knowing it.

Still-going; in the hills to the North of Florence and Pisa famous for the production of Presepi Artistici or nativity (Crèche, Krip[pen]) figures, they share the location with Marchi & Figli (Marchi and Sons) who (about the same time Fontanini were opening the Fonplast works) set up ISAS for their toy production, the four sites as good as filling the valley with figure production - both on the four main sites; and in all the little villages around the region where the (mostly female) out-workers completed the painting and finishing of orders.

Marchi came second (1930's) and are now (having re-absorbed ISAS and stopped the rack-toy production) known as Euromarchi while Fontanini set-up in 1908 and are now mostly making poured resin models for their main partner (and marketing guru's) in the US, Roman Inc; who have generated a whole fan-base of bible-belt and suburban 'soccer-mom' collectors with their own web-sites and forums, like Bradford Exchange, Danbury or Franklin Mint collectors!

Both companies are also now run by the forth generations of their families, and it was under the third generation of Fontanini's that Fonplast was set-up in 1963 to manufacture plastic figures in volume as the older ranges were phased-out.

Now: to the English-speaker it's probably easier to say that those older ranges were composition; however, some sources (including the current Fontanini) translate some of the early production as being papier mâché, others as 'plaster' or plaster-covered papier mâché, while in 1951/2 they were registering groups of figurine designs (from 6 to 13 inches high) with the US Library of Congress as 'ceramic', so the picture is not entirely clear.

Certainly though; we know they made composition figurines of the Elastolin/Lineol type between the wars and through to the 1960's until the switch to plastic.

Away from the Nativity ranges and limited dips in the toy market, Fontanini are best known (or instantly recognised - once you know what you're looking at) for their larger mouldings, supplied in various finishes to the tourist trade in Carrara and the surrounding regions, where they are affixed to a block or tile of 'sample' marble, for sale as mementos of a trip to the region, Fontanini's own plastic-based statuettes being sold more widely around/elsewhere in Italy in the same vein.

It is sure that Elio Simonetti (who joined the company after the second World War, and not Emilo!) and the other sculptors at Fontanini worked with the tourist trade to produce figurines they thought would sell, and that they also worked with the Val Pelro (valley of lead, or 'lead valley') metal foundry where much cross-over or cross-pollination existed, while his work with Cané ('canine' or dog) between 1971 and 1975 was almost certainly with the blessing of the Fontanini's and probably to the financial gain of Fontanini/Fonplast.

As can be seen on the map these firms were all relatively near each other, and Ferrero who would produce small-scale, die-cast copies of many of the Fontanini, Cane and/or and Peltro sculpts (along with the much pirated Lone Star 'Metallion' sculpts - also Simonetti's work) in their chocolate Kinder Eggs, set-up in the 1970's in the same Northern-Italian 'neighbourhood'.

The fact that the Cowboys and Indians of all the above named resemble the Marx sets is probably because Simonetti designed them too, and I wouldn't mind betting (this was all happening in the late 1960's/early 1970's) that he got the gig through Roman in the US who were on the scene by then, but A) I'm getting ahead of myself, and B) it's my own thoughts - so treat it with a pinch of salt.

Markings are many and varied with Fontanini and can lead to confusion, some of the older members of the hobby will tell apocryphal stories of people coming up to them at shows and announcing that they've "...found a new company; Depose!", while the logo is itself problematical, or at least: it was; it's now been replaced with a graphic of a fountain.

On the left we see an image of a typical base mark on one of the larger statuettes with the Depose Italy (registered [in] Italy) a mould-tool/stock number and the logo, along with the standard Carrara marble's self-adhesive, chrome-metallised, paper (later: vinyl-plastic) label.

On the right - a close up of 'That Mark'. Now - the company themselves tell a tale of papier mâché toy spiders, most people - now - refer to it as a spider -despite the lack of legs being present in the correct number, Garratt thought it was representing a crab, for which job it is lacking the prerequisite claws while I think it looks more like a sheep-keg or blood-sucking, burrowing tick before it's fed (although they have eight legs too!), and on some toys it (the logo) looks to have only four legs and two antennae!

I suspect it was originally meant to be a beetle; clockwork, hand-powered or spring-loaded automata of walking beetles (usually painted-up as ladybirds/ladybugs) were common, popular playthings between the wars in wood, tin-plate or composition and if they were making spiders, they were probably making more beetles, spiders being less popular?

Whatever the truth, it is considered to be a spider now, was present (usually on the base underside) from the early composition figures through to the mid-1980's or even early-1990's and has now been replaced, yet without a full explanation as to why - why would you replace a logo which was over 70 years old and instantly recognisable?

On the left - a late vinyl cow from the 1980's onwards (it could be quite recent, I don't follow the Roman Inc. era stuff closely) with a cloudy blob for the fountain, a full 'Fontanini', a copyright ©-mark and 'Italy'.

On the right - the plain 'Italy' mark of the Fonplast figures from a short lived attempt at a slice of the 'Toy Soldier' market. Someone (guess who!) has been trying to pass these off as being from a company called err . . . Italy, quite vociferously, in recent months, in various grubby corners of the internet, but he tends to make stuff up as he goes along and is best ignored in his pontificating.

Other marks (along with any cavity/stock numbers and/or 'spider') can include any combination of the above and/or including:

• 'Dep. ITALY'
• 'DEPOSE'
• 'Depose Italy'
• 'Depositato Italy'
• 'Fontanini'
• 'ITALY'
• 'MADE IN ITALY'

Variations in base/plinth attachment with an all-hard polystyrene plastic combination on the left and a vinyl (PCV) figure to polyethylene plinth pairing on the right.

There was a limited use of both styrene and ethylene from time to time or with certain sets (possibly from the old Fontanini facility up the road at Bagni de Lucca?), but most of the 'classic' Fontanini/Fonplast production circa 1965-1985 was in a very dense PVC which takes a lot of punishment some (softer batches) coming across as ethylene on casual inspection, some cured so hard it can be mistaken for styrene - this would have been from the Chifenti Fonplast works - down the road!

The flexibility and 'give' of PVC also takes an old-fashioned, slotted wood-screw far better than either polystyrene or polyethylene would have, which made the fixing of a plastic figure to a chunk of the planet's harder surface material a lot less problematical!

Spirit-based glue was also applied to the join between the figure's integral-base and the additional plinth; to prevent the figure coming loose easily under the scrutiny of small, inquisitive, juvenile fingers back in the tourist's home location.

"Ah-Harrrh Jim-ladd ! Oi's bee wiseerrh noww! . . .

. . . Oi's bee Farnt'aaan'innii!"

Next - we'll look at the figure types using my rather small sample - no internet images here and I'm not copying it all out of someone-else's book!