K is for SS Kresge, Kids, Kmart and Super K!

Nearly history now, but the Australian operations continue as an independent enterprise, several stores outside CONUS are still going and a limited presence on an old Floridian site is still doing business. But back in the day, they were big!

 

Claimed by a Chemtoy Corp of Circero, Illinois, the set also states the contents are made in the British Crown Colony of Hong Kong, and to anyone who's been following this stuff, clearly contains the products of the Lik Be Plastic & Metal Factory of the territory, but not carrying the LB logo on this occasion. It's then further branded to SSK, the short form logo of the earlier iteration of Kmart, - SS Kresge.

 

I said, in a post on other things (astronaut-spacemen I think) a while ago, that I had two farm sets to post, but don't seem to have got round to doing so yet, however, as one needs much editing before it goes first, of the pair, I thought I'd shift this out of Picasa as a warm-up!

 

How it arrived from the 'States!

 

 

After I had matched up glue marks and restored a bit of order!

 

A mix of three from the anthropomorphic animal band (bases marked with the LB hugging monster, as per the divers/fishermen/astronauts) and seven of what I call the cartoon 'Funimals', we also get five sections of the distinctive LB farm fencing, in two blisters, heat-welded and dated to 1971.

 

There is no relationship between the Key 1 code here and the British supermarket chain Keymarket, which, although having a similar logo, was not related to Kresge at all. The first supermarket locally was a Keymarket,, back in the late 1960's, it's now the - totally rebuilt - Sainsbury's site in Farnham, we would go there, very occasionally, to do a 'big shop', and it was a big deal!

M is for Metallic Metal Metallions

Just a quick scan, I was scanning a bunch of stuff the other day and did this while I was at it. A small range of metal figures called Metallions (metal battalions...geddit!) was issued by Lone Star in the 1970's. They were also issued by Hubley and Kresge (SS Kresge were the forerunner of K-Mart) in the US and included Cowboys, Indians and Pirates along with these Knights.

Six character figures from 'Knights of the Round Table' fame, unlike the Westerners (which were copied from Marx 6" figures) these seem to be relatively original sculpts although one or two look familiar to anyone who knows the Britains Deetail sets. 54mm die-cast Mazac / Zamak alloy, they are then antiqued with a dark varnish wash.

The full story of the figures and ideas on who's were first (not Kinder; that's for sure!) told by Alexander Kutsche is to be found here - in German, but a thorough look at the subject. Small ones can be found here and question marks, overview and sets, Alexander's collecting and origins.