E is for Eye Candy - Wild Minimals!

E is for . . . will be a new trope here, a single shot of interest, or a couple of shots, with a bit of blurb, maybe maximising Tags, illustrating a particular feature or specific point, or just showing a nice image!

 

Today it's some of the many sets of 'Minimals' as I call them, the smallest size of commonly commercial plastic animals, approximately 30/40mm-figure compatible, but actually 'unit sized', so never to true scale with smaller animals in real life rendered larger, and larger animals in real life rendered smaller.

 

Two bags of loose, but clean samples (bottom left), probably complete or near-complete (all these sets tend to a content count of between 8-16 items), and then clockwise from the top left; Ackerman Group tub, 'Play Works' from The Works bag, Kandytoys blister-card, Boland BV of the Netherlands and Henbrandt (second set I think - newer card, we looked at both passim), both header-carded bottle-bags.

 

The contents of these sets are always fun, with an almost guaranteed Elephant, Giraffe and Lion, with Tiger and/or Leopard/Cheetah/Jaguar type (occasionally a black panther), then a Hippo and/or Rhino. Most sets will have some kind of Monkey or Gorilla, some have both, and a Zebra is almost as guaranteed as the three standards.

 

Then it gets a little less predictable with Camels or Kangaroo's to the fore and some kind of ruminant, either a North American / European Deer/Moose/Elk, Bison/Wisent or an African / Asian Gazelle/Antelope type or Buffalo/Wildebeest, better sets have a Bear, but it can be black, brown or 'polar', and usually only one, if present!

 

More off-the-wall items in bigger sets might include an Alligator/Crocodile type, an oversized Turtle or an equally enlarged Penguin! There have also been several insectivore/Ant-eater types over the years, and occasionally a - usually poorly sculpted - Hyena thing, or Wild Boar/Warthog! And these mini-sets are never usually more than two-fifty or three-quid - proper pocket-money toys!

W is for Wildlife at The Works

I haven't visited The Works much in the last couple of years, what with everything else that's been happening, but I managed a visit the other day and came away with five inexpensive rack-toys which may interest you, especially if you're looking for Christmas stocking-filler ideas that may help nurture the next generation of 'plastic warriors'.

 

 

Three 'standards'; Dinosaurs, Zoo and Sea Life, no Farm, strangely, nor Insects or Reptiles (the other common subjects in these cases), or Birds, but as a Brucey Bonus the fourth set - in different graphics - is Unicorns . . . of course!

 

The first three are pretty self-explanatory and seem to be new models in the 'mini' oeuvre (we may have seen the dinosaurs elsewhere?), while the Unicorns are rather simplistic sculpts, and poorly bagged, so need to be examined to ensure a decent colour spread with both (yeah! Only two) poses, but all good fun for kids.

They also have, unrelated to the previous quartet, a carded set of rubber-jiggler finger-puppet dinosaurs (which have their own page in preparation), but nice to see such traditional fayre available at this time of year. All five in The Works now, ten-quid, the lot!