N is for Not Serious!

A few more toy or figure related funnies, and a couple of cats!

 

I believe this is genuine? But not necessarily a retail thing?

 

Ours were old, fat, bald and tattooed, with their brassy tarts holding the ladders!

 

Sigh!

 

Heehee!

 

Rubber jigglers!

 

Let's make death fun! And phallic!

AI from a couple of years ago - it was poor!

Check-out the white lines, crushed cars and dwarf in a pram! 

 

Real, but I don't know which model village?

T is for Two - Phidal's Recent Additions

We haven't looked at Phidal for a while, and while I do keep a look-out, and TKMaxx have had a few batches of deliveries since we last looked, they have mostly been duplicates or things no-one here wants to see! However, I have picked up two since whenever, and shot them separately as they came in, so here they are:

This one was shot back last December, and yet it missed both the December post and the April posts, plural, so I don't know what happened there, except if you're following things here, we all know I lost the folder in Picasa! Also, the PC was dying back then?

 

Not a lot to add, more Minions! Given the actual sizes of Minions and both the favoured sizes of infant playthings in general, and Phidal's 'premium' inclusions in particular, there are a lot of minions out there and most of them are around the same size, certainly you could force perspective on a huge crowd of them by placing the smaller ones closer to the camera and larger ones further back!

Meanwhile, this has been around for a while, and while I shot it in February, it had actually, already made the December round-up, albeit with a lesser figure shot, so no harm looking at it again for a second bite!

 

All the favourites are there . . . and Christopher Robin!

 

Rabbit reminds me of my own . . . 

 

Now, Hitler never got his hands on my pink rabbit, but we did have to look for him in the fog one night driving up to Ipswich on the old . . . must have been A13, A14? After he jumped out of the window!

 

In those days (before 1969) it was a series of dual-carriageways with intermittent roundabouts, and as I cried-out the instant he 'jumped', Mum had the presence of mind to make a note of roughly where it was (in thick fog, and the dark), as she had to go-on to the next roundabout, drive back to the previous one and then crawl up to the area where hopefully Pink Rabbit had stopped for some fresh grass, without picking-up a large lorry as a boot-ornament?

 

Anyway, he was found, without everyone dying under an ERF or Guy Ant! And he's still here, now guarding the Sharpie zone! He actually turned-up among Mum's things, and I thought he was in storage with my stuff, so she obviously rescued him from my teenage disinterest at some point!

 

He looks like a version of the R. Dakin pink rabbit, which back then probably wouldn't have been shipped over here (a US firm), so he may have been acquired in Bahrain which I visited at six months old, or maybe Granny Hall got him from somewhere like Harrods - who back then would have stocked all foreign brands, as their selling point was everything in the world under one roof, although the urban myth in the playground was that you had to order whale or elephant steaks in advance, and there was a six-month waiting list for a whole, live elephant!

 

Strangely, the playground gurus didn't have an opinion on the waiting time for a whole, live whale, or the instruments of delivery?

A is for And so to London - Loot Bag!

While I'm up 'The Smoke' (which has been smokeless since at least the 1970's!), I always look around for a few things I might not find locally, and Peter takes me to his local discount store, to which end the results of my last trip 'up to town' are this post!

In the said discount store I grabbed a box of three capsule-eggs by a minor-make, imported by Unique Plus Ltd., and from a Turkish outfit called Global, but branded Candy Toys and 'Aras Eggo', I've only shot one, but it was a nice clip-together bicycle around the 54/60mm size. I can't remember if the other two were crap, or if I saved them for another day?

These were also there for a quid-each or less, Toymania from Hunter Price International (whose logo is a large bear riding a penny-farthing!), and looked like a bit of Dino-fun, only the two designs were available, I don't know if there are any others, and a soft rubbery polymer, probably filled with the same corn-syrup Stretch Armstrong was?

And this little babe was next to the Dino-sqishes! She's a bit weird, as she has two clip-on dresses, but ony the front/sides are modelled, so from the rear you can see her pink-underslip! Hence the stand and mini action-figure holder, she's for display, with the odd change of outwear! Also from Global Gida.

On the way to visit Peter's work, we passed a junky-antiquey shop and I asked if he ever got anything from it and Peter said occasionally (without much enthusiasm!), but after missing the bus past his work on the way back, I elected to walk up to the next stop, and the next (exercise is good for you and the weather was fine!), inevitably though; the  next bus went past while I was between stops!

Eventually I realised I'd walked back to where the shop was over the road, so I popped in, there was nothing of interest, but the chap there was determined to 'help' me, and when I mentioned I was looking for vintage toy soldiers, model figures or military/space toys, he went out the back and came back with this!

No brand, beyond a tomato in yellow shorts which may themselves be a Chinese character, and clearly not that old, but mid-to-late 1990's is old for some people! It's a space ta . . . err . . . armoured car!

Clockwork, the key's missing but I have a bag of spares somewhere, it has an eccentric wheel to send it off in odd directions, and a sparking engine-bay (so, much like most Russian tanks these days - Slava Ukraine!), and was a bit of fun so it came home with me!

Walking down to Charing Cross and cutting through St Martin's Place you pass a bunch of Touristy shops, and while there wasn't much, I saw these two in a stand at not-much each and grabbed them so you won't have to!

We've looked at animals with pencil-top holes very similar to this horse I think (they may be in the long queue?), so this is more confirmation than anything else, while the guardsman is a pen-dangler, and a little blob of super-deformed poured resin to boot!

When I went to pay for the toppers or the next lot (below, seperate shops) this egg was on the counter by the till, so I grabbed one on the off-chance and got a figural, Minion slinky . . . or 'slinky-Minion? I haven't noted the brand on this, but I saved the wrapper so it's in the 'archive' for future revalation!

Theseare both good and bad, they're good because they were dirt cheap, they're quite nice die-casts, wire brush-polished for that satin/silk look and then both anodised gold and antiqued with a dark wash, but bad because they are obviously drilled for pencil sharpeners, which haven't been fitted, so either a bloody swizz, or an ugly hole, you chose! Imported from China by Elgate Products - previously importing resin Pirates; see Blog passim, also courtesy of Peter Evans.

Ph is for Phollow-up!

A couple of few other Phidal or Phidal-like bits and bobs which have accrued since we last looked at them, and pretty-much covering the gamut of subjects the Busy Books visit.

We looked at these in a previous round-up, but as a part set and added the cat in another post, here we see the whole set in one place, those missing previously are the first fairy on the top row, the yellow one on the bottom row and the ladybird.

The Thor is definitely Phidal, so is the little Ice Troll chap (as we've seen him before - 'in set'), so the fact that they all have a third marking type from those we looked at yesterday may therefore be an indication of intermediate production, I may - of course - be reading too much into it, but it seems to be; . . .

© xxxxxx DIS1301      -      [early 2000's]

© xxxxxx      -      [intermediate - mid 21stC, so far]

© xxxxxx (s18)      -      [current, from s13 - 2013?]

. . . but they have already outgrown their container, so when I re-house them (I've just done the Fontanini) I'll try to annotate them a little more accurately and do a better overview.

I think I may have shown the other two before, but they're here now anyway! Action movies, cartoons, superheroes, princesses, idiot fish, square-panted Bob-sponges, Peter Rabbit, ninja reptiles, Peanuts from Schultz, Shimmer & Shine, fairies, Minions, a well-behaved dinosaur, Transformers, DC, Disney, Marvel, Pixar . . . the Phidal stable!

F is for Follow-up - Minions

As an eraser follow-up, Terranova sent me the first two images of these the other day, and while having a big putting-away session at the weekend I took the opportunity to take the third image to show the size difference I mentioned the other day.

These are different to the eraser sets we've seen here in the UK (and on the Blog) twice now, having a join mid-way down the face, and larger feet, so I suspect they are a tad larger than the previous sets. Also; I don't remember a lady-Minion, or a Minion in a piny?

All that ninja-action and martial arts crime-fighting has left the mutant turtles looking pretty ropey these days! Cheers Brain.

I'd forgotten the large 'piratical' one; who came in with one of these mixed bags of vinyl/cartoon crud from a charity shop I think, but - as I guessed - the two new key-rings from the other day and the three 'probably Phidal' are sized either side of the earlier erasers.

The films/DVD releases have proven popular over the last five or so years, and as a consequence there is quite a bit of Minion-related stuff out there, figurines - in all sizes - to the fore.

Q is for Query - Probably Phidal?

There is a big re-organisation happening here at Small Scale World Towers; since the news from Spectrum about Phidal and my post Christmas successes in tracking them down, along with other stuff that has come in, the 'to be sorted' box of TV/Movie and Cartoon figures in the attic is overflowing.

Being a tad OCD (only a tad mind, I couldn't give a fig if the cutlery is crooked or the picture frames are at an angle!) I like my stuff properly sorted, so it's time to break the box into 3 or 4 new boxes, in the course of which I suspect I'll find a few Phidal's for the tub they were awarded a few weeks ago!

These were in a mixed lot from a charity shop a few weeks ago, the key rings are 'just' key rings and were common back around 2013 when I bought a couple for a friend of mine, however I suspect the smaller ones may be from a Phidal set, I need to check a source, so for now it's a maybe, but I'm pretty sure.

Size-wise the small ones are smaller than the Minions eraser set we looked at a few months ago, the key-rings are larger (the erasers are almost perfectly sized midway between these two samples) and both sets are in a stiff PVC-alike.

This chap - Fear - from Disney's Infinity - is almost certainly a Phidal as he has the same plain 'DISNEY' base mark, on a glossy black base, as have some of the other figures we've seen here under the Phidal label.

M is for Minions!

This is an odd one as I was sure I'd handled them before, but once I got them out of the box, they ceased to feel familiar, turns out I'd selfied a similar set last Christmas in TK Maxx, today's was the reduced end of line/scruffy last set in The Works a week or two ago.

This set differs from the one we saw lasttime in a number of ways, firstly - there are no duplicates and secondly there are non-minion items, a monster rock-ape-dog-boar thing and a unicorn?

Now I've noticed that unicorns are everywhere this Christmas (or this autumn if use of the 'C'-word is still too early for your sensibilities!), mugs, toys, cushions, egg-cups, stuffed-toys ('plushies' for those who indulge in baby-talk), fleeces, you name it I've seen it unicorn shaped or unicorn decorated in the last few weeks, 18 months ago you may remember a similar summer fashion trend for flamingoes, that didn't last long!

Another way they differ is that they all have their arms down, the previous set had far more animation in the individual sculpts included. This pre-production publicity shot also has them all with a printed logo on their dungarees which didn't make it to the production batch contained within the box!

The artwork is cleverly arranged to reveal the full extent of the playability; the heads come off and you can pull the monster-pet's legs out, and  . . . err . . . that's it! Although you can also pull the feet out with a sharp tug, they are actually - like the gloves to the hands, the arm-sections to the dungarees and the goggles to the faces - glued on/in.

Lining-up against the new backdrops! Four of the characters have the same basic body, arms and legs (including the pair on the left here) while one is taller and thinner, the other shorter and fatter - whereas the previous set seemed to have more variety or uniqueness between sculpts; with the Despicable Me 3 set only the heads differ on four of the figures.

The other two with common parts, the reason they didn't seem so similar when I'd opened them is that last time I only studied them on-store, and later from the shelfie. Now, it looks in that old set as if they do all come apart fully, but I suspect lost components led to poor customer feedback and as a result with this set the gloves are firmly attached; trying to pull them off stretches the arm, and as it's made of that crumbly new faux PVC - damage would have occurred had I persevered!

Likewise I tried to prise the arm/side units out but they are stuck-fast somewhere in the middle of the figure. However you can remove the feet, by turning sharply until you hear the non-solvent bond between the two polymers snap and then the feet become almost too free!

They also serve who only stand and wait! The previous set had 4 each of 5 poses, this set has one each of six, plus these two.

They're really just Kinder-egg capsules with dungarees and faces drawn-on aren't they, let's be honest; there's nothing new under the Sambro sun!

Be Bad!

Y is for Yummy!

It's not often that I get a 'Y' in the header, and not often that we look at edible figural, so I thought I'd kill two birds with one stone!

The only question is, why didn't I use that excuse to use a 'Y' on one of the previous occasions we looked at such things - the human mind is quite a retarded instrument n'est pas?

But then our brains have apparently got smaller, while Stegosaurus had a larger one . . . I'm 'binge' watching Life on Earth as a retro treat!

 

Haribo - who knew; they have names!

Anybody who's watched the movie, knew, Hugh! Due to vagaries I won't bore you with, I ended-up with a bunch of stuff intended for someone else after Christmas, among which was a bag of Minion jelly-chews - Actually the second bag of Minion jelly-chews I've imbibed in my few short years here on planet Earth!

They're a bit one dimensional really,

but very tasty, especially Bob!

Private Baldrick's moustaches! I also ended-up with a bag of snakes, they didn't have names but are probably a bunch of Pennsylvanians! They are a no-particular-brand, generic, type thing - the snakes that is . . . !

P is for Pre- and Post-Christmas Plunder Pics

Although 'plunder' is probably too strong a word for the few odds and sods that turned-up - for the most part - in Charity shops over the festive build-up and deflation!

These were covered fully by Colin Penn in Plastic Warrior magazine (Issue 165) just before Christmas, but I thought I'd get one while I was buying similar stuff for little people in the run-up to the big day, and was lucky enough to get the most bearable of the figurines . . .

. . . the reindeer! He comes with a little blue 'ice' disc to sit in which I forgot to photograph.

He's shot with a Schleich cat I picked-up in the Toysaurus because it was in the cheapest price bracket, a foot-bouncy-ball I rescued from our cats as they are too old to play with it now, another which came from the floor of a store somewhere - in order not to steal it I 'accidently' kicked it into the mall hall and then nearly lost it as it took it's newness and freedom as a chance to go a bit spastic!

They'll both go in the Novelty box I started last autumn with the non-figural stuff from the December '15 posts, along with the inclusion balls from Xmas and the soy sauce fish bottle, which is another 'found object'.

The charity shops gave up a mixed batch on the evening of the 23rd, there are 8 in Fleet and I managed to get to 7 of them before closing as I walked back through town. A large Minion pirate, the green one from Monsters Inc (who looks like a loopy fruit pencil top!) and a resin 'wise man' (and there were probably more than three)* who looks like he may be a copy of an earlier Italian (or Spanish?) model.

* As I understand it none of the four gospels mention a total, one names the three who give gifts, another as good as suggests a whole bunch of them, I don't read the Bible; I did once, too much rape, concubines and incest, not enough sex or magic! And that God - he's always killing people, large numbers of people!

Also from a Charity Shop bin, three late Britains animals in good paint condition (10p each), but from the leery-paint era! These all go in a big bag and every now and again I sort out the best as 'main sample' and throw the rest in the rummage box for PW's show.

Save's the best for last; In an eMail following my posting of the multi-set shelfies I found before Christmas Brian Berke was saying he's seen a drop-off of the figures in the US (you may remember he brought them to the Blog's attention first) but had seen 'a few' 60mm ones.

I didn't think too deeply on the comment from what was a longer, chatty eMail, but a week or so later was checking out the sale at Basingrad's TK Max, ostensibly for the tree decoration bears (no joy) and while they had flogged 90% of their pre-Xmas display-stock and retreated to their 'other 10 months' shelf area, I found these!

60mm versions of the 'old school' DC Comics superheroes, and bendy toys! They were in a pile of yellow-tagged 'get it before it's gone' stuff, and if Brian hadn't mentioned them, I think I may have skimmed-over them without 'seeing' them if you know what I mean!

Three quid? That's a-pound-a-figure, a good omen for the coming year? Let's hope so 'cos with Brexit, Trump and Putin leading the march of progress for the next few years there 'aint gonna be much progress, but there may be a lot of marching - if you know what I mean!

R is for Rubbed-out

The other noticeable trend - which we've been showing here for a couple of years now - is the modern, crumbly-rubber eraser trend; kids have always collected rubbers (I once fancied a girl who collected them!) so that's not as new as the material which seem mostly to be aimed straight at collectors.

I shot these shelfies the other day in a discount store (Home Bargains) in Basingrad, I've collaged all four images as the reflection was diabolical! Around the 70mm mark, these are like the Iwaco rubbers, having a slot-together 'swoppet' element to their make-up, but much bigger.

And: a new name in the Blog's tag-list! Sambro seem to another of those modern equivalents to the old FOB-jobbers, handling licenses and their applications, rather than inventing 'new' stuff, wearing their branding but manufactured in an anonymous great OEM-factory in China.

Brian Berke sent these to us at different times over the last year - on the left is a London Bus (in New York!), with a pull-back motor in the lower half (the body of the bus seems to be in two parts) while the torso of The Batman is  also pierced for use as a pencil-top, but he's a bit heavy! Your handwriting would suffer long before RSI kicked-in . . . stick him on the desk-top as an ornament of popular culture! Thanks again Brian.

This goes with the little Bluesky shuttle/spaceman combination we've already looked at on the Blog, a hybrid modern multi-role fighter with something of the Typhoon and both Mirage and Saab's latest offerings, along with a Russian or Chinese looking rocket eraser.

Finally you can't go wrong with this from the same maker as the Turtles, but shelfie'd in TK Max . . . an army of minions! There's actually only five sculpts (four of each) and they don't all seem to interconnect, some of them have different dungaree designs, therefore different neck/shoulder shapes, but 20 Minions for a few quid? Bargain!