J is for Jurassic Busy Book

A return to Phidal, there's been a big restocking in TKMaxx for Christmas, and while most of them are sets we've seen already, or sets I'm not interested in, this seems to be new, except it's dated 2022, but isn't the one we looked at here, which was dated 2021 anyway! Although with the same 'Phidal' bases, they will go together well.

 

 Cover.

 

Contents.

 

Tyrannosaurus Rex - Giganotosaurus 

Velociraptor - Atrociraptor (best dinosaur name ever!)

 

Allosaurus - Dilophosaurus

Dimetrodon - Parasaurolophus

Therizinosaurus - Pyroraptor 

All from the other side.

Two of these play-mat scenes (top right and bottom left) might make useful background sheets for future photography, but due to the polymer lamination of these sheets, it'll require careful ironing at low temperatures to get all the folds out, but I have hung on to them for now.

P is for Premiums, Down Under

These have been in Picasa for too long really, not because other things haven't been there for longer and - indeed - are still languishing there (!) but because when Tom Clague sent them to the Blog they are still current or current'ish, but that was over a year ago, so they may now 'only' be collectable!

The less interesting to figure collectors first; these were issued by a supermarket type concern in Australia, I think as part of a promotion, i.e.; if you spent so much you got one for free, rather than as purchases? checks eMails . . . every AU$30, got you a toy!

Blind-bag groceries which the Airfix 'Multipose' Bren-gunner reveals to be in-scale with larger dolls, but which could also be used to 'play shop' . . . presumably Coles shop! And - apart from the blow-moulded bananas - realistic renditions of high-street/household-name brands.

Tom pointed out there was a certain irony to the supermarket giving-away little bits of ephemeral plastic tat, two weeks after they phased-out their plastic carrier-bags, but sadly that's the nature of the world we live in! I have seen more wooden toys this year, even Mattel Hotwheels have a wooden range out at the moment!

These are a little more like it! Also found by Tom in Coles; chino-dino-bods! Blind-bag mini chinosaurs, looking slightly familiar, but it's a while since I had a session on them so I'm not sure if we've had them here under other packaging, but lovely sculpts, with realistic, subdued paint schemes . . . nice!

Scaling comes from the LB-Airfix Saladin armoured car and you can see they are 3 or 4-inches in the main, around 6-inches maximum? Thanks to Tom for sending both and letting us know what's happening 'Down Under'!

D is for Dinosaurs 1 of 2 - K & J P

We saw theses briefly in a 'How They Come In' a while ago, one of my nicer 'scores' from a charity shop this year, still on card but a bit tatty Kenner-Parker (KP) Jurrassic Park (JP) stuff from the early 1990's, probably old 'emergency presents' found at the back of the 'phone-drawer years later!

Because they were tatty and due to ever-increasing space-restraints, I have de-carded them, the cards scanned and sent to fire-lighting; at this time of year recycling drops-off here!

From the fact that stickers have been added with an over-print for the consumer-information panel we can tell that these were current-stock as Hasbro bought the Tonka empire to which Kenner-Parker then belonged, and it also enables the set codes to be worked out, the original (un-stickered) cards having only a generic 61027 'assortment' code;

61028 - Brachiosaurus & Velociraptor

61029 - Ceratosaurus & Triceratops

61030 - Pteranodon & Gallimimus

61031 - Ankylosaurus & Hadrosaurus

61032 - Dilophosaurus & Stegosaurus

61033 - Tyrannosaurus & Dimetrodon

61034 - Plesiosaurus & Iguanodon

You distract 'im Baz, and I'll 'ook 'is neck!

Matchbox were doing die-cast JP things at about the same time, so whether it was a shared license, or just a  quality stipulation from the licence issuer I don't know, but it's an odd co-incidence that two companies should be making similar sets in an unusual material (for figurals) at the same time, pertaining to the same movie?

Oooh . . . Me'favorite! Dimetrodon; showing how you can display each model's card in the little slot shown on the back of T-Rex's stand, also highlighting the gruesome fact that 'Rex is about to chow-down on a rather old, sun-faded carcass . . . nom-nom-nomnivore!

A couple more JP dino's, we've seen one already and I may have some more in the ex-storage pile, but the dinosaur box/boxes (can't remember) haven't surfaced yet? Pretty standard PVC-type plastic and I used to think the mark was the toymaker's, but believe it's actually a park-owner's tattoo found on the CGI'd animals in . . . err . . . the second (?) movie? So these are probably Hasbro/Mattel too, but I don't know.

M is for Matchbox Military Bits and Pieces

Military bits and pieces here, not everything, just a round-up of a few things not covered above, and/or photographed in the big session last year.

Mostly 1-75 Series small 'box-scale' stuff, I don't know when the Stingray fish-thing was made (there's probably a date on it but it's back in storage) but it must be before Carlton had the franchise in the late 1980's? Metal to plastic wheels, metal to plastic hooks, the ambulance lorry is a repaint, the Stalwart is missing its cover, a late trailer and dump-truck...all a bit of a mess but this stuff is sub-scale and not on my main radar. Indeed about half the above are left-overs from my childhood that somehow refused to die through adolescence and house-moves! Oh, and a Jurassic Park dinosaur tow-truck!

These are Matchbox Collectables from 1995, not sure if the mouldings have appeared elsewhere (Altaya, 21st Century, Del Prado?), this would have been some Universal or Mattel marketing thing with Dinky copyrighted on the same boxes!

They are rather nice models, compare the Battle Kings Sherman with the MC one. Die-cast and plastic parts, good level of detail and the finish is realistic, something always absent from the Battle Kings! Like the same-generation Corgi stuff there's a ratio of 5 parts packaging to 1 part model!

It was a short-lived venture going to clearance with a year or two and I missed out on a couple of others by not acting quickly when Andy from Harfield's got a few in the late 1990's!

Colour variations of the standard 1:76 scale boxed figure sets, with 'European Theatre' grey-blue Afrika Korps (top left) and grey NATO Para's (top right), I think they ARE grey now but these were a few years old a few years ago!

And - below them - the mad bright blue German Infantry I bought while visiting friends in Berlin in 1994 which must have been an early run under the Revell ownership? By which I mean there was/is a very small Revell graphic on the box but it was a year or two before you could get re-issues of Matchbox figures in the UK under the Revell banner.

The dreadful PVC offerings of the 1990's, least said - soonest mended, but...those images aren't distorted, the figures are that shape!

M is for Matchbox Farm and Other Animals

Animals, another element to play to be included in an otherwise boring road vehicle, another small piece of plastic to burn-out the motor on you granny's old goblin horizontal vacuum!

Cattle trucks and horse-boxes (livestock transporters) were/are a constant source of horses and cows for the 'unknown' box.

Matchbox went with white for many years (top row) and we see all variations, the larger horses being from the Super King set, the smaller ones from the 1-75 Series.

The cow/bull ran for years with horns in white, then black ones appeared in the late 1970's-early 1980's, by the mid-1980's the 'health and safety' people had frowned at them and their horns disappeared, finally - toward the end; other colours started to appear.

The next row are a bit of a mystery, the three brown ones seem to be the M'Box mouldings, but they are marbled white/chocolate and the quality is poor, they could be copies, they could be pre-production test-shots, they could be a sub-contract for someone else? The black one seems to  be a straight 'lift' with reversed leg positions and a different tail.

The last row are late colour variations of  the smaller 'pony'.

The dogs. I love the dogs, better than the 'HO' dogs of either Preiser or the - much rarer - Marx set, they are well detailed, itsy-bitsy little beauties. The pointer appeared first with the Hunter and a station wagon, I've seen it stated as fact that he came with two dogs, but I've several of these sprues and there's only the one dog.

The gun-dog sculpt was reused for the Kennel Truck, with a new base and three pals; a Boxer, a Collie and a Beagle.

Farm play-sets and larger Super King models came with these - the smaller being around 50mm, the white 54mm figure having another dog sculpt, a Setter, which can often be found loose. The tractor-drawn tools are from a play-set or two.

The Jurassic Park franchise threw-up the die-cast figures and dinosaurs top right, while lions have been a feature from the 1970's.