H is for Holy Self-Signed Toy, Batman!

I bought this at Sandown Park, I won't tell you what it cost, but suffice to say it wasn't cheap as chips, and I was initially a little disappointed by it, suspecting a mug had been seen coming, a little buyer's remorse crept in, but, like last night's cartoon, that's something which often accompanies the post show sort-out!

 

Holy boxed battle-taxi, Batman!

First, it was sold to me as AHI (Azrak Hamway International) when it's not, it's the later Australian reissue from Len Hunter Trading, and dating from 1989 (AHI carried this in 1977), and that it was signed, which I quickly convinced myself was a bit dodgy? However, having seen the prices of a few unsigned ones, and enough samples of Adam West's signature to be slightly more convinced by its sloppiness, I'm much happier about the purchase now!

 

 Holy facsimile figurines, Batman!

 

The main body of the Batmobile is all-plastic, so it ticks one box, and has two figures, of The Batman and pesky Robin, The Boy Wonder, so it ticks another box there, and is clearly a scaled-up copy of the Corgi die-cast, where that was 1:43rd, this is closer to 1:35th/32nd scale.

 

Holy Batbath brum-brum, Batman!

 

The boat is the same, and while I initially though they were blow-moulds; so many of the bootlegs and knock-off's have been, it is actually a couple of lumps of polystyrene, the frangibility of which means they are far worse survivors, than the original Corgi die-casts.

 

Holy crime-fighting combination, Batman! 

 

I think the figures can be used in the Batboat, but the seats are closer together, so maybe only one at a time? I noticed, before purchase, the blister had been off at one point, and not replaced brilliantly, so there's an option to remove it again, in the future, photograph the combination in close-up, re-set the Batboat in it's trailer properly, and try resetting the blister a little better?

 

Does the fact that the autograph is 'To Robin' from Adam West, give it a little extra caché? And, as I said to the seller, with all its faults or potential faults, when was I going to see another one? Holy philosophical fuckwittery, Batman!

H is for Hoarded Hord of Halloween Horrors

Except none of them are remotely horrible, nor in any way horror inducing, which makes them all the more acceptable as fun figures/items you might use in gaming, or just chuck in the collection as box-ticking completers!

 

Indeed, if you want to hear something horribly frightening, or frighteningly horrible - I saw my first Christmas-lit house on Wednesday night, it's still October! And that's not including those few in our region, who have given-up taking their shite down every year, and just display a mawkish, illuminated-idea of a fantasy fairy-dell, 24-7-365!

 

I think we saw these a year or two ago, but I'm not sure if they went to eight colours last time? In The Works, and the only Halloween-related thing, of a figural nature I found there, worth a penny!

 

I shot these in Sainsbury's, but didn't buy them, as we did a whole bunch of these sets a few years ago, with various posts and comparisons between the contents, the differences between similar items, like the millipedes and such like, and I suspect these are re-issues of some of those, and I don't need them in the collection, nor the vast numbers in the bag, but I guess, for party 'scatter', they are good value. Credited here to a Rayland International.

 

But I did purchase this chap, about 6", so the top-end of the collection's range, and not very animated, he's a box ticker! The amount of safety information on the little card, for a single-piece moulding the length of a pencil-case ruler is daft, but that’s the times we live in!

 

TKMaxx gave-up this little gem of an eraser set, the ghost doesn't stand up, and could use a cotton-thread to hang him off something! In the Japanese, Iwako style, with multi-parts and ethylene inserts for eyes etc.

 

These are new, seen in The Range and too big a hole, for pencils, I wondered at the point of them, until I saw the boxes of glass straws! A sensible attempt to end the plastic straw problem, and invent a whole new genre of 'topper' at the same time.

 

The straws had year-round packaging, so I didn't shoot it - bad-enough I talked myself into buying straws I'd never use! - I thought, although I've since used one to get the juice out of the bottom of one of those prepared fruit-salads with separate compartments, so useful after-all, and luckily they also come with a useful straw-washing brush!

 

Also in The Range; figural 'pop-a-point' stacking coloured pencils, we saw a similar set earlier in the year, and there were others which were too big and or cartoony for the collection (similar in TKMaxx too), but these were figural fun in the smaller scale, or at least the ghosts are - box ticked!

 

Brian Berke sent these from New York, and they are definitely fun items from Forum Novelties, being those semi-sticky wall or window walkers, that jerkily shudder down flat surfaces!

 

I'd normally crop these sorts of images closer, but you can see pumpkin shaped treat-collection jars to their left, which are also quite fun, I've seen similar (in B&M I think?) but didn't shoot them.

 

I thought these were the same as the first item in the post, but bought them for the packaging variation, and the possibility there were colour variances too, only to find they were larger, but slightly less well-sculpted skeletons, in the style of, but all new mouldings. I guess the brand is Tell-a-Tale, but it's not clear, and I think I found them in a garden centre?

H is for Hell, it's Halloween!

Or it will be soon, and while I haven't found much, I thought I'd post before the 31st this year, instead of saving it all 'till the 'The Day', it's not the same as ITLAPD, and if you do happen to like the look of anything, you need the time to go and find it! These were all sent to the Blog by its roving reporter in New York, Brian Berke, and then there’s a big, fat apology at the end!

 

Brian reported he didn't find much to interest figure collectors, and neither have I this year, but there are a few bits for another post, and I may raid the internet images for something, but one thing I had seen, but not shelfied, was some of these, and very Warhol'ian 'pop eating itself' are Christmas nutcrackers, transmogrified for Halloween! Shot in a store called Ollie's?

 

Bats! Safe now, Ozzy will be flying with them, this year! Note the gold ones have lost a lot of glitter in transit, from rubbing, I guess? I found the same thing with that 'sugared' Gummi Bear, Christmas-tree bauble, last year (or the year before?), in several baskets of them, spread around the sales area, it was hard to find one without bald-patches, a little more glue, or a shorter time between glue and dipping in the glitter/beads would solve the problem! Dollar Tree, now!

 

While I owe Brian a big, fat apology for this one! He sent it in 2018, and somehow it got lost in Picasa? Scully and Scully who don't always do Halloween like they do Easter (or Christmas, but Easter seems to be their biggie?), and, in my defence, I think that was the year they did all the blown-glass stuff, some of which was published at the time, some went in a sea-life round-up, and one or two (frog?) may still be waiting to be added, to something more thematic?

 

But Scully and Scully are a favourite, and I think the autumnal tree is particularly stunning! Cheers Brian!

F is for Flying Jeep, H is for Hafner, M is for Malcom, R is for Rotabuggy

Brian Berke, roving reporter in NY, sent me these a month or so ago, and they got put on hold because of Rack Toy Month (and everything else he'd sent the blog), and the fact that I needed to play a bit of catch-up with the queue, but it's a fascinating thing, which nearly 'happened', and was performing well in tests, when it was pulled, purely due to advancements in Allied glider capacity/abilities.

 

The R. Malcom & Co's., M. L. 10/42 'Hafner' Rotachute-Rotabuggy, Flying Jeep, it's a Jeep . . . wot flu!

 

Utilising the New Ray Jeep, itself a nice model I haven't tracked down yet (well, I'm miles behind with larger scale vehicles, and they aren't a priority!), Brian has built a model of the Hafner Jeep for his troops, and above is the work-in-progress shot, showing how he went about it.

 

Basically Brian seems to have used a stiff paper or card, over a plastic frame, and when I was a modeller, I often used tissue paper for vehicle tilts/canopies - after a couple of coats of Humbrol they became quite robust, if you use a stiffer paper - a bit of Basildon Bond or something - you're laughing, it's as good as plastic sheet. Also, some people now wash the paper with super-glue to get even more plastic-like rigidity.

 

Finished and posed with the Lone Star paratroopers, who seem perfectly suited to the task, it really looks the part, for more on this machine, there's always Wikipedia:

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hafner_Rotabuggy

 

Strangely I have a memory of seeing this in the Airborne Forces Museum, at Browning Barracks in Aldershot as a kid, but if the only one (at Middle Wallop) is a 1980's mock-up, I must be imagining it, because I'm thinking of '71/72? There was a long series of cabinets along the window side of the museum as you entered, which contained models made by the modelling club of Depot Para', and it's likely there was a model of this there maybe? But I have a - presumably false - memory of one, out on the parade ground with the air-portable Land Rover on Hercules pallet, and the similarly bound Humber Hornet with Malkara missiles, which were parked near the main-road past the barracks.

 

Fiddler's Green, a name we've seen here before, also offer an all card model:

 

http://www.fiddlersgreen.net/models/aircraft/Flying-Jeep.html

 

It looks more like a mini-moke, but it's a bit of fun. And, to be honest, their page (scroll down) is better than Wikipedia's for imagery and history! And it didn't fail, it wasn't unsuccessful, it was working, when it was pulled, because it was easier to land a jeep with its gun, from a glider, without a big hollow tail attached!

 

Funny how people get all excited about things like the German Maus, a monumental waste of time, money and material, while we were towing people down the runway in these! I hope all that window area was plexiglass, not real glass, you wouldn't want to fly hot into a war-zone with all that glass, 12-inches from your face?

Many thanks to Brian for the shots of this fascinating scratch-build.

H is for Have a Happy Easter!

Well, I seem to have managed to get Good Friday, Easter Sunday and Bank Holiday Monday off, so I might get a bit posted, but I might go off and do something more meaningful! I fancy a walk this afternoon, but in the meantime, it is time for the regular look at what Scully & Scully have had in their window this festive season, courtesy of Brian Berke from the New York office!

 

Trees and shrubs were a noticable portion of the display, and Brian actually went back to shoot a couple more. I think the first one may have been flocked with micro poly-beads, but the others just look to be painted?

 

They seem to have moved them around between visits, so we get different lighting, if not different angles, hard to shoot flats anyway other than straight-on! We saw this sculpt (or Edition, as the flat 'publishers' call them), last year, but they always seem to use a new painting, when they do re-use the models.

 

 

A hundred-and-fifty meters to Easter people, a few circuits of the garden, or pop-down the corner shop and back, you'll be there! And if you don't use the carrot-car you'll get a bit of exercise!

 

These are a delight, every time, and just as traditional as chocolate eggs, although I was now years old when Kalani Ghost Hunter (one of my current secret pleasures on Facebook reels) educated his followers to the fact that the American's don't do chocolate eggs like the Europeans do, his mind was literally blown (non fatally!) by the wall of eggs in an average UK supermarket, and when he went back to the 'States, he showed us a Walmart display, and apart from a few Cadbury's Cream-Eggs, similar things from Reeses, and a few minis, there was nought!

 

And, many thanks, as always, to Brian for taking and getting these shots to us.

H is for How They Come In - Charity Shop, November

To be honest, while sorting all these out I couldn't remember when or where I'd got these, but I remembered picking the four Timpo 'Action Pack' Arabs out of a bin of mostly shite, and with all the shots dated together, they must have been a charity-shop round-up, I didn't shoot the bags of?

 

They came with a medium-sized Supreme/SP horse, I think it was 20p each or something, so I just grabbed a quid's-worth, I know I have the Timpo Arabs somewhere, but it's a mixed tub of painted, Action Pack and later re-issues in beige, by Marlborough or Dorset, but I thought it would be nice to tick the box here with a matching set of the mauve ones, whether I already have them all, or not!

 

I suspect a mix of Kinder, Phidal and someone else here, all grist to the mill, and it'll all come out in the wash! God knows what's happening with the Pirate parrot, or the chaps either side of him, anyone recognise any of them? The pink t-Shirt is probably a 'Shopkin' or similar blind-bag, pocket-money collectable.

 

This guy was with the above, beyond the fact that he's some sort of robo-alien, in around 45/50mm, with a very, very big sword, I have nothing else!??

 

While these are Phidal, we've seen the two on the left, before, but the greenish-guy with the claw is new to me, however, a few have come in, not from the sets I've tracked down, so I know I'm missing a a few figures from some of the early Superhero issues.