'West' is for Panini Sticker Album - Plus!

Previously issued in the 1970's as either a sticker-only exercise or with other (commercially available) figures - it's not terribly clear - the Sticker Album 'WEST' was re-issued in the 1990's with a figure included in each pack of 6 stickers, today we're having a look at them.

I imagine you could also purchase the whole set (with card fort frontage and figures?) from the UK page of the website for a while-after (link at end of post) as you can order complete sticker sets for some foreign issues (50-quid-plus for a sticker album!) to this day, but I don't know how well-developed, or 'international' the site was in the 1990's?

Mounted figures for the cavalry, six different poses, of which only two are engaged in any sort of fighting, which may be a clue as to what happened at the Little Big Horn . . . too much saluting, bugling and carrying of small flags, not enough fighting-back!

Joking aside; I particularly like the Indian scout while the chap in buckskins could pass for General George Armstrong, but he'd need a bottle of Grecian2000 'Blonde' first! Am I right in thinking only the scout is wearing his braces correctly?

The US get eight foot poses, each of which is numbered (the mounted poses are unmarked), here we are looking at - top row from left;

23. Kneeling Shooter

24. Sentinel

25. Soldier with Gun

26. Standing Shooter

. . . and the figures are sized to around 50mm or 1:35th scale

Again using the top row, from the left we have;

27. Standing Shooter

28. Standing Shooter

29. Running Soldier

30. Standing Shooter

. . . and all the figures are manufactured from a  softish PVC replacement polymer with decoration mostly done through stencils, although there's some hand-painting.

Horses are probably the poorest element of the set, suffering from the softness of the plastic and slightly effete sculpting. There are three poses, which are also marked on the bases;

A2. Cavalry Horse

B2. Cavalry Horse

C2. Cavalry Horse

. . . two of the poses are very similar (either end), with only the feet reversed while the other seems to be pacing or high-stepping in a formal fashion?

The Indians get very similarly-posed horses, but with blanket saddles;

A1. Indian Horse

B1. Indian Horse

C1. Indian Horse

. . . their decoration is also more muted with various over-sprays on the same hazelnut-coloured animals. And as they are numbered ahead of each Cavalry version, I'm not saying they followed, but probably lead?

They also get six unmarked poses of rider, three in leggings/trousers, the other trio in just loin-cloths. The figure on the far right is particularly fine, shooting over his forearm, downwards into the/an - unseen - mêlée, and they are all more active than their cavalry counterparts.

The natives get ten foot poses, and just as the riders are more animated, so too are the foot figures more imaginative. Again from the left;

13. Indian with Gun

14. Indian with Bow

15. Indian on Ground

16. Indian with Dagger

17. Kneeling Indian

The base-titles however are just as lacking in imagination with these as they were with the US troops, with several having duplicated text!

18. Indian/Tomawac [sic]

19. Indian Lance/Shield

20. Indian/Tomawac [sic]

21. Indian with Bow

22. Indian with Bow

Base marks for - clockwise from top left - cavalry trooper, crawling Indian, Indian horse and foot Indian; the fact that the prone Indian is marked (down his leg) makes it all the weirder that none of the mounted poses have any marking at all? All marked items also have a 'CHINA'.

Thanks to John Begg for these which scraped-in under the 'small scale' parameter (perimeter!) back some time in 2006-7 and have just slid-out of storage..

A useful link with more information;

http://www.paninimania.com

While, in numerical order;

Set Listing

Horses

A1. Indian Horse

A2. Cavalry Horse

B1. Indian Horse

B2. Cavalry Horse

C1. Indian Horse

C2. Cavalry Horse

Riders

1-6. (?) 6x different Indian riders

7-12. (?) 6x different Cavalry riders

Foot Natives

13. Indian with Gun

14. Indian with Bow

15. Indian on Ground

16. Indian with Dagger

17. Kneeling Indian

18. Indian/Tomawac [sic]

19. Indian Lance/Shield

20. Indian/Tomawac [sic]

21. Indian with Bow

22. Indian with Bow

Cavalry Figures

23. Kneeling Shooter

24. Sentinel

25. Soldier with Gun

26. Standing Shooter

27. Standing Shooter

28. Standing Shooter

29. Running Soldier

30. Standing Shooter

Other Items

?. Relief Card Fort Frontage ('stage set' in log 'stockade' construction "Fort Apache")

?. Sticker Album

News, Views Etc . . . New Content - Airfix Blog, Galoob, Football, Card Collector's Flyer +

New content has been added to various small-scale posts on the Airfix Blog today, including horse/base comparisons on the Bedouin/Nap. French Infantry/AWI Grenadiers posts, new content on the 1st & 2nd version WWII Eighth Army, 1st version WWII German Infantry, Civilians and the Infantry Combat Group, while the Lone Star/Airfix comparison shots have finally been added to the 1st & 2nd versions of Afrika Korps & WWII German Infantry and to the British Paratroops. Most have had some text, but it's only reminded me of how behind I am over there!

I've also added two pairs of new pictures/screen-capchas to the Galoob page - numbers 40; pilot, and 41; a new carrier-deck bib-colour/base variant.

_ᴥ­_ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_ ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_

For any fans or collectors of tea, gum and cigarette cards, The Card Scene magazine (formerly Card Times) is the one for you - if you've not found it yet? Six issues a year (each with up to 36 pages) for £17 seems reasonable value for money compared to other publications of the same type.

Contact:

[cheques payable to Ace Card Ents]

Ace Card Enterprises (C/O J. Devaney)

10 Yelverton Road

Whitley

Reading

Berkshire

RG2 7SU

johndevaney222@btinternet.com

_ᴥ­_ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_ ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_

Football News

The first casualty of the current pig's-bladder kicking contest in Putin's war-mongering gulag may be Panini's UK-distributor Connect. After some negative publicity earlier in the year over how many packs you'd have to buy to guarantee a full set following - what seems to be an act of pure profiteering - a price hike from 50p to 80p (about a Dollar or Euro), sales dropped, leading to an ironic - if you accept my charge of profiteering - profits warning last week!

Although this is not to mistake a profit warning as equating to a lack of success; with or without a price hike the two packs (single and x6) were the second and sixth best selling items in the toy sector; week-ending 19th may, according to analysts NPD Group.

Nevertheless, Mark Cashmore the CEO of Connect has resigned and WHSmith the High Street newsagents (themselves, recently declared worst shop on the said High Street by the consumer watchdog Which?), felt the need to organise an in-store 'Swap Event' (Saturday 2nd June) encouraging kids (or dads?) to come in and swap their duplicates with each other, in order - presumably - to minimise purchases, in the normal course of events I'd say "You can't make this shit up" but in the new Trumpundbrexit 'world order' it seems anything goes while we wait patiently for the end!

The cause of all this was a work published back in March by mathematics Professor Paul Harper who calculated the cost of obtaining a full album to be a eye-watering £773.60p which is probably about the same as my total toy-figure spend in two or more years.

With 32 squads to collect plus the special-page and whole-team stickers it could be more, I'm not sure he's calculated the potential inequality of the 'randomness' of packs contents (vis-a-vis batches or waves) given that a sheet (seen at the printers - in the i newspaper; Thursday, 7th June) only had 200 stickers on it (A1 sheet, 20x10), suggesting different batches will have different duplicates - if you see what I mean?

As far as other football playthings go, Match Attack and Top Trump football sets are also selling well at the moment. Apparently football-related toy-sales have doubled in recent times for the periods of each World Cup or Euro-Championship, making up 6% of toy sales in those years, for a seasonal industry relying on Christmas and summer 'super-soakers' - that's not small beer.

_ᴥ­_ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_ ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_

Toys in the Media! This is a current flyer locally my friends got sent, for the central heating firm undertaking checks for Vivid, who are the new name for several local authority's preferred housing association. It looks to be a library shot, possibly available on-line somewhere, as it's unlikely a central heating company in Farnborough would have access to a HO-railway model of an alpine chalet, but you never know! Anyone recognise the model/maker/brand?

_ᴥ­_ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_ ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_

Returning to Galoob; my assistant - being as helpful as always - decided that sorting the Micro Machine G.I's numerically by base-mark is just not the sensible way to go at the task, in her own words -

"Hughman - You need to sort them leastest lastest, mostest firstest, and the red & white ones can go on the floor for now, look, here; I'll do it for you, you're obviously 'busy' faffing about with that camera!"

MIMP is for Monster In My Pocket, MEG is for Morrison Entertainment Group

There is one skeleton in this lot, so I've managed to pretty-well alternate skeleton/zombie types through the 15 posts today (still a couple to come!), and don't expect a post-fest like this next year, it's just how the cookie crumbles sometimes; how it crumbled this year!

Wing-ed Daemons!

These also came as part of the mixed lot with the Yolanda's and some other stuff a few weeks ago, I have more in storage and would have Blogged them as a box-ticker at some point; being as this sample is a reasonably sized one it might as well be now!

These are all - I think - common line/series/version/wave 1 and 2 (I'll post a link to somewhere that explains it all better at the end!) with no rarities or unusual colours. My favourite colour of these is the apple-green of the right-hand winged panther; which is also one of my favorite sculpts from the various sets, along with Tony the [Trainer] Tiger from the Wrestlers line.

The most Halloween-specific of the sculpts with two colourways of a hunchback on the ends, an evil dwarven type, a yeti, skeleton and Death himself, come to the party to deal with the salmon-moose eaters!

Katzenberg:       I don’t see it that way, Geoff. Let me tell you what I think

  we’re dealing with here, a potentially positive learning

  experience…

Grim Reaper:    Shut up! Shut up you American. You always talk, you

  Americans, you talk and you talk and say ‘Let me tell

  you something’ and ‘I just wanna say this’, Well you’re

  dead now, so shut up.

Katzenberg:       Dead?
Grim Reaper:    Dead.
Angela:              All of us??
Grim Reaper:    All of you.
Geoffrey:            Now look here. You barge in here, quite uninvited, break glasses

  and then announce quite casually that we’re all dead.

  Well I would remind you that you are a guest in this house and…

[The Grim Reaper pokes him in the eye.]
Grim Reaper:    Be quiet! You Englishmen… You’re all so fucking pompous

  and none of you have got any balls.

[ [ Monty Python ] ]

Number two (from the left) is ork'ish and number 6 is ogre'ish, the rest will have to be looked-up, I haven't had time with preparing these posts to go into the minutiae!

An Ent-like tree-monster, storm wraith and sea-monster/serpent king, all three among my favourites and a couple of oddities!

I didn't follow these at the time, except the wrestlers who came in my cereal! Matchbox reboxed some; others were in Panini blind-bags and I think there are specials, well I know there are they are on Soupies Blog somewhere (link earlier today . . . previous post?), issued with a board-game.

Actually the werewolf (2nd from the left) should have been in the Pic-2 line-up, he's very Halloween! He's in my other preferred colour of these figures

The Elephantine Ganesha is another 'like' along with the other serpent-god, but the last two don't hit my mark at all!

Probably the best link for a guide to them