E is for Eclectic!

Around the same time as Chris Smith's parcel, i.e., a few weeks before the Plastic Warrior show, the third 'spring break' was a parcel from Peter Evans, which has been in the queue for ages, and I'm happy to thank him now and share the contents with the rest of you.

I think we've since seen this BJ Toys set, because either Peter gave me another or I grabbed one, out and about, but either way it got Blogged, but that means I can open one and inspect the two Matchbox-clone figures more closely another day!

 

A pull-back-and-go, slightly 'deform' T62 type with a whacky paint-job, possibly from a larger set, but could equally be an open-carton shelf-pick type of thing, you do still find them occasionally in general/discount stores or on market stalls?

 

I think we've seen these before in a set of four, but nice to be reminded than even in the modern derth of decent rack-toy war toys, there are still a few gems to be uncovered, and a Tiger and StuG (albeit with identical running gear) are a nice diversion.

 

Green-eyed monster! There is a plan, one day, for a decent overview of 'King Kong's; we have seen a few here over the years, but there's probably over a dozen in the pile,. This very-male one is particularly mentionable, being neither the common 'Rubber Jiggler' silicone or latex, nor the semi-rigid PVC, you might otherwise expect, but is actually a rather solid lump of polyethylene . . . "You could 'av someone's eye out with that!"

 

Impro Dinosaurs, I have a tub of these and have meant to Blog them, but I think I'm still waiting on the rarest moulding, or only got one as they were going back into storage (?), but no matter, there's plenty about them on the Wibbly Wobbly Way, and the duck-bill here is another of the less common sculpts I think?

 

Paint variations of Pterodactyl, I used to kind-of ignore them, but in the last year or so, particularly with the donations from Jon Attwood, and a few Charity Shop buys, there have been quite a few come in, with copies and variations like these, so there may be an overview-post in the Blog's future as they are almost more amazing than normal dinosaurs . . . the world had flying lizards bigger that fridges, or even family cars, which could swoop down and pierce your spine with a four, six or eight-foot beak!

 

Potato, Onion, Apple

Carrot, Cucumber, Aubergine-Brinjal-Zuccini

 

Blackberry, Apple, Pineapple

Two Bananas and an Orange

A pair of Apples and a Pear

 

These have been given several names over the years, now collectively known as 'Munch Bunch', they were also sold as 'Mr. Fruity', 'Fruit & Veg' etc. Pencil tops, there are several versions, variants, piracies and issues, with examples of several seen above, you sometimes found them with plug-in cowboy hats (which unethical sellers would/will happily use on swoppet figures), plug-in greenery, painted, integral greenery or no 'top knot' decoration, even some with small charm-loops, and as you can see above, larger and smaller versions.

They are another thing destined to get a proper in-depth treatment here one day, and of which, again, there is plenty to read about them, online already. I think we got ours one year in a Christmas stocking, maybe three each, and we called them Pineapple Pol (and his mates), but I think that may have come from Mum, and be referencing the famous musical, which was big when she was younger? Note, the pear has lost its [her?] legs.

They are always waving with one hand, with the other arm down, often wearing clown shoes, Cuban heels or Dutch clogs and always wearing gloves. Some are clearly female (long lashes!), and the Banana is always top-knot'less, unless he has a loop, due to his starting to peel! And once you have a big collection, there are a couple which are hard to name as being obvious fruits or vegetables!

 

The difference between an apple and a tomato is a moot-point, but the tomato tends to full roundness. And please note, there are millions of them out there, so they are mostly hideously overpriced on evilBay!

A bunch of bits, they all have their place, with tubs of assorted traffic cones, road signs, general signs, two boxes of tentage and etcetera! Likewise, the tree zone has been growing for about 47-years! I think the above fir is a cake decoration, and the gun is from early rack-toys.

I think we've now seen the set the middle chap is taken from, or it's in the queue, but a loose sample is always useful, and the set of mechanics may have been ID'd in a shelfie, or, again, be in the queue, all good stuff!

Vinyl! Two Smurfs, an astronaut, a Gormiti Egyptian (?) and a Kinder Santa, join a little lady in a princess suit, who I did find on that there Interweb the other day, but I've lost the reference, she's a current kid's TV character.

Post-Giant mouldings of Wild West foot figures, an Airfix kit figure of an RAF ground crew firefighter, who - unlike the refueling set figures - was not later issued in the soft polyethylene figure set, and two piggy-wiggies! The smaller from Hong Kong, the larger, an early Britains with a damaged tail.

A box of Airfix HO-OO, painted and with some damage, because everything was going to storage by that point, they will be cleaned and sorted another day, a little project on the back-burner! Thanks to Peter for all these, it's all grist to the mill, always something useful, or Blogable, and there's a bit of everything above!

C is for Canoes - 10 - Non Wild West

 A very eclectic mix in this post, and by no means all, or even most of those I could have found, but more of a taster of what's out there, if you're tempted by these posts into specialising in canoes!

 

I think this was a Charity Shop purchase about a year ago, i.e., some time after these posts had begun their journey to publishing! But it helps fit the next one into the oeuvre, and who doesn't have a soft spot for Snoopy! Marked as if licensed and made in Hong Kong, it's probably been manufactured for someone like Applause?

This was also a latecomer to fill this posts folder! Included in a previous donation from Chris Smith it was a mystery for a time, I thought maybe an eraser, but after finding Snoopy and noticing the Bully mark I have tied it into a similar Smurf toy!

 

We've seen these before I think, probably more than once as they are part of a bigger line which incudes or crosses-over into sports, beach and divers! Cheap Hong Kong rack toy copies of a Corgi original, they are in storage! The oars are always missing or broken!

Also not appearing in these posts, is a similar 1:70th'ish canoe, as a roof-load pair from Hobby Dax, which I got in Lidl about 20-years ago, in fact, there is a whole family of them from Majorette and Matchbox (both also paired), Guisval, Spot-On et al!

 

This is the now out of production - Canoe, MkII, 'Ard Bastards, For the Use Of - kayak, courtesy of Ronara Store, a Chinese outfit, via Brian Berke, who was wanting to reproduce the infiltration device of choice of the 'Cockleshell Heroes', it's manufactured in resin and is nominally suitable for 54mm figures!

 

Brian's finished model, I'll let him set you right on the model . . .  

 

"Recently on eBay out of China came what I hoped was the long-awaited canoe of my dreams. Listed as 1/32 it falls far short. Moulded in resin, it was difficult to glue and getting the arms to stay in the correct position to take the hands with paddles proved to be beyond my patience. So here it is. The real Mk II canoe was 16' long, 28.5" beam, the model is 4 5/8" long"

 

I thought I might have saved these from evilBay, but in following-up on the eMails for these posts I find Brian sent them, but he saved them from evilBay! It's the Renwal 'dime store' civilian pleasure boat, and the figures are about 30/40mm and look like they might have been sculpted by whoever sculpted the figures for Pyro's military vehicle sets? It also seems to be missing a clip-in oar?

Many Thanks to Brian for his input, lots more to come!

T is for Two - Popular Personality Pencil Tops

All at sixes and nines this week, so things have slipped slightly, but I fired these off earlier tonight while shooting other stuff, intending to get them up here as a quickie, which I've done!

Tom & Jerry! They are the same size thought, unlike Marx's large size TV 'Tinykin' types, but still fun, sculpts don't quite capture them accurately either, which initially lead me to wonder if they might be unlicensed knock-offs, but they have the MGM mark, and there aren't so many Tom & Jerry items out there (now owned by Warner Bros.), therefore a nice addition to the oeuvre!

Turns out We saw a packeted set here!

These are knock-offs I think; there are Wizard and Punk Smurfs in Google results, but they don't look much like these two, however plastic colour screams 'We're Smurfs; buy us if you like Smurfs', so  . . . no; we don't like, horrid little bootleg nasties - yah, boo, sucks to you, fake Smurfs!

B est pour les Bestioles Bleu!

I threatened these the other day, so let's get these out of the way! Smurfs! I assume some Movie or DVD release was the trigger for them?

McDonalds Happy Meal premiums, who have grown over a year or two from two to 11 different sculpts, and while I know Macky-D's do some quite large sets in these promotions, I wonder if there aren't more than one tranche of these, and how many there may still be to find; one - for twelve, or loads?

Originally I got the two (red one [Papa Smurf] and Smurfette, in a creamy-white); pretty sure they were a charity shop lot, back in January 2018 (they're actually dated 2017), then another came in (holding the book) but I'd already lost the first two in the pile, so I shot him alone - next collage!

Three more came in months later, but by then I'd united and put the other three in the attic, so nothing happened 'till October of this year. One was a duplicate and went back to charity in the next bag of saleable tat!

On the 31st October (while all the scheduled Halloween posts were publishing and Britain wasn't Brwreakshitting, or stepping over its dead premier's body in a ditch?) I was photographing Smurfs (well; somebody has to!), and had found five different sculpts - now I think at least two lots were Charity shops here in Fleet, but I can't rule out some having been in Peter E, Chris S or Jim's lots, so thanks to them, for everything, anyway.

Then, last week Mr. Evans sent me a parcel which had seven, six new poses and a duplicate. When I first sorted them out, I noticed the duplicate, thought the Papa Smurf was a duplicate too and assumed one Smurfette was a duplicate, and just crossed my fingers that the 'missing' pose (or two - two Smurfettes, knowing one was new, put my 'total' up to a likely eight figure set) would be among the other four.

But, checking the photo's taken in October (the five are temporarily lost again!) it became clear there was only one duplicate, which raises the question over number of issues, as two duplicates in total, over two years among thirteen figures suggest a lot of sculpts out there, as does three Smurfette poses and two Papa Smurf poses; you'd expect only one of each per set?

So the hunt is on; had they been a set of six, I may have shot them and handed them back to charity, but multiple issues and suddenly they're collectably collectable! I suspect there are going to be as many as eighteen, with maybe some Gargamel sculpts and/or his cat?

I'll dig out a link if I can at the end of the post, which may make it all clear to the interested, but I'm writing this in the dark when I could have looked it up ahead of time, because it's new stuff, the answers are all out there somewhere!

However, and . . . the really interesting aspect of the set is that some of the figures are over-moulded!

Both of the Smurfs with one hand on the ground are pinned-through the white base by their blue bits, and the tails seem to be drilled through the white to appear Aires Rock-like as little batholiths! While Papa Smurf is also an over-moulding of red/blue, with a white painted beard.

It's not as simple as 'they are all over-moulded' though - the Smurfettes' legs are stenciled-in in blue paint, as are some of the tails and the way the heat has joined the colours on the obvious over-moulds has left a feathered boundary-line which can look a lot like the spray-boundary of the added blue, so I can't actually tell you all the bits which are over-moulded, or on which of the other figures (some may have painted bodies?), but some are definitely over-moulded to a high degree of tolerance . . . it's another reason to find the rest!

Now, one shouldn't get too excited about the fact, after all, these days fine-geometry over-moulding can be found on such things as kettles, domestic irons, promotional biros, garden-tools, even sex-toys or key-fobs! But it's nice to know toy figures - always the poor relation in toys (we like think they're important, but with one or two exceptions - Britains, Hill, Timpo, Starlux - they weren't even the main part of the main figure-makers catalogues!) - are still seeing the odd bit of over-moulding.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Oh My Lord! . . . It's a whole damn conurbation . . .

H is for How They Come In - Last Week

So-  to the parcel I picked-up last week; in the main courtesy of Peter's finds at the Widnes Collectors and Car Boot Fair, although I suspect he added a few bits from elsewhere; the two carded Chinatoy sets for starters!

First sorting; bits we won't look at closer, below, include a Soma Robin Hood (top, yellow), a couple of US police (from or via Jaru?), a stack of Chinatroops marked SH which I'm pretty sure are the Shin Hing I shelfied a year or two ago (large tubs in Smyths).

While top right is a lovely thing; a Peruvian worry-doll type couple, but clearly a couple (they are stitched together!) and formed into a pin-badge, presumably so you can mutter you worries to them as you go about your day, rather than shoving them under a pillow?

The hippo' is nice, but unmarked and of a style (in PVC) which could put him back in the 70's or have him being made in the last few years? The key-rings are getting their own post! The knights are Timpo copies, but marked China (there are earlier HK versions) so probably, technically; Toyway copies! However, both horses are complete and with caparisons, so a nice sample.

Piles moved about, so I could take a few photo's and my assistant came to see if she could help, as you saw the other shot in the sequence last Saturday, you know as well as I do what her idea of help is - bury your head in a  jiffy bag and go to sleep!

The two bears are bisque or a similar fine, sandy porcelain, but - more importantly - marked Taiwan, which is nice as I have very little from there. The tiger is a current Kinder Egg premium (although they're not really premiums as you pay for what you get!), and one of the more realistic ones, so are quite cartoony.

Three earlier (2013) Phidal's, DC I think (Superman characters?); two nice, but late and poor finish, Hong Kong copies of Britains Herald Indians, an air-or-oven curing clay snowman which could be a kids home-made, but has signs of a few semi-professional 'techniques' so may be an attempt at a commercial/craft product?

On the way to the sorting office to pick-up the parcel I found one of those free pencils for order slips from Screwfix, and put it in my coat-pocket, as you do; waste-not, want not, so when the monkey pencil-top was revealed ten minutes later, I wanted not for a posing instrument!

He's also a consummate example of modern over-moulding with black highlights on pink bits over a brown 'ground' and no paint.

A tiny glazed duckling! What else can I say, it's tiny, it's glazed ceramic and it's a duckling, possibly a Khaki Campbell with those markings!?

Four Smurfs which I think are Kinder and a pile of similar cobalt critters, which I have obscured, as I already had a post on these in the queue, having found - initially two - now five in total, and thinking I might be looking for a sixth was very pleased to find these; hoping I might find the 'missing pose' among a handful of assumed duplicates (recognising at least one).

Only to find six of them are new, so McDonald's (for it is they who are responsible) must have issued two (or more) tranches? There is something else interesting about them, but that's for the forthcoming post.

Thank you Peter, what we haven't looked at here will be sorted  like-with-like to build on future posts, and both the key-rings and Smurfs are a'forthcoming!