H is for Hexbug Space!

So the reason I knew about Hexbug (previous post), to spot them at the Toy Fair, in a way that without, I would normally have walked straight past them, zoning them out as multicoloured plastic shite - how many other useful things have we missed that way, like looking for your key by doing 'Radar' eyes on the hall and somehow failing to register them on their hook by the door! . . .

 

. . . is - I digressed a bit there - because a few months earlier I had found a nice little spaceship in a Charity Shop's 50p bin, and taken it home to ask the wise coves of Brain Heiler's Faceplant group if anyone knew what it was and/or who made it.

 

The turret was a plug in and there was clearly room for more.

 

 Amelia A. Baranet answered the call not only with an ID but also with a link to the Hexbug Nano Space Cosmic Command Habitat review, which seems to have been deleted, a small chat ensued and it turned out several 'Stallions' had them, or their kid's did, and loved them, but I had already gone-off to evilBay, where I found one going cheap!

 

 

 

Turns-out, all the blue and orange bits are interchangeable with the mounting points of the buildings, vehicles and 'ship'. While, you get two Hexbugs, in way cooler colours than the everyday ones we looked at in the previous post. It's all a bit Lego or Tente, but without the studs ruining the lines of the finished constructions.

 

There are other sets, and because this one then went straight to storage (autumn of '21), we will have a box opening post in a year or two, perhaps when the existing Internet images have died-down a bit, but for now, there's tons out there if you look, and I think it'll go well with the little 20mm'ish Giant spacemen and bug-eyed Aliens?

Q is for Question Time - Space Play Mat

You'll either know this 'cos you've got it, or you won't have a clue, the only clue I had was that it might have been from one of the larger Hing Fat sets, but a bit of googling/EvilBay serching revealed that the only plastic mat they seem to have had, in one of the NASA sets, was a sort of sandy/desert scene?

Hard to photograph without reflections, when it's been scrunched-up and your landlord's put 18 downlighter spots in your ceiling, but i soaked it in hot water and then used kitchen roll to streatch it flat against the wood-floor. The only actual clue is a small PART NO .0031, located in the large crater against the long side, in black print? Anyone recognise it?

Haha! See comments; Marx/Mego - 4206 Galaxy Command, 1979, or the previous year's Star Station Seven, two of the very last play sets;

https://2warpstoneptune.com/2013/01/25/marx-toys-galaxy-command-play-set/

S is for Soma's Star Rider Space City

Picked this up a few weeks back going unloved and un-bid, on that there evilBay, a month or so ago, I had no idea it existed and was looking for something-else entirely when I found it. Not really a rack-toy in the traditional sense, but I bet that when it was originally retailed it would have been half the price of a Bluebird Mighty Max or Polly Pocket set, and a quarter of the price of a similar Galoob Star Wars toy?

Folding-up to very small (6"x4¼x1¾-deep - 150x100x44mm), there's enough play-value to keep any kid happy in a caravan on a wet week in Rhyl! These days - of course - it'll either be too-hot to play in a caravan without cooking yourself, or so wet there's a danger the caravan will float away!

Fully unfolded; the gun-tower has shades of 'Hoth', the rest is - dare I suggest - more Flash Gordon than Coruscant! It comes with four of the diminutive little HO-figures I think I've shown before (we'll look at them again in a second) and a small truck the seller (alkim96) kindly added to the lot before sending, but which hadn't been in the sales shots.

And this is it, I think it's based on one of the ex-Giogi/for-Kinder mini fire engines, dated to 1997 (the Soma set) that's quite possible, but only as a vague copy; the Kinder ones were clip-together while this is screwed, following the Micro-Machine principle.

"Plastic smalls" as those with little finesse refer to them! I think we have looked at these before, and I think I've only added the four new ones, all duplicates, this is one of each from my sample, spacemen in grey and 'pilots' in green, each numbered on the base from 1 (on the left, purple and orange) to 12 on the far right.

My whole sample, most of them came mint with their aircraft and or 'spaceships' all of which went to charity about 20-odd years ago, found in generic packaging (I think) in Woolworth's it was only the little Soma on the base, and I think I'm right in saying the fighters came with one figure, the spaceships with two, hence the imbalance.

Also I don't know why I'm missing grey-5, as I should have all of them? You can also see there are some minor colour variations within each sub-tranche, but schemes stay true. Hopefully, one day, I'll be able to show you all of them, but they are not a high priority, with only two found in addition to the new four, over the years.

I have joked (at length) on the assorted panoply of weapons, clothing, equipment and headdresses so won't bore you with all that again, you can see what an eclectic mix of 1990's 'straight-to-video' post-apocalyptic B-movie extras they are! And they make an excellent set of extra bounty-hunters for Galoob's Star Wars Micro-Machines!

V is for Vac-forms, Part 3 - Others/Unknowns

Here we have a few odds and sods; Top left is what I suspect is the insert for the box-packaging of a 1950's set of toy soldiers, or a wagon or such-like, being a sort of trench, open at both ends (07-03-2017 - it is - Cané of Italy trench, issued with 5/6 figures in a blister above it's own, on a backing card). Next to it - in black - is what I thought was an Amera moulding, being in a heavier gauge plastic than the older makes, however it's not on their website, so I guess it isn't, however it looks quite modern so someone will know, JNT? Far right is something I know I've got somewhere in the collection/archive, but just because it's supposed to be there doesn't mean I can find it! I think it's from the Esci board-game/play-sets of a few years ago but don't quote me.

Below left, could be from one of the earlier Esci Polystyrene play-set/kit compendiums of the 1970's but I favour it being a Power Play MPG 10 - Wrecked Vehicle. Easily identifiable are the broken bits of an Airfix 88mm Gun and Tractor, along with the Austin Ambulance and K6 fire-engine from the same manufacturer's RAF Emergency Set. You can see in the enlarged Photograph (click on it) that it's had to be reinforced with copious amounts of liquid glue - itself stiffened with sprue shavings, in order to fill the cracks of ages.

Finally a space-base, which I had hoped - when I saw it - was part of the base for my Marx Mystery Spaceship, however it doesn't seem to 'go', so I guess it's a more modern thing. Interestingly it has a hole in the middle for mounting some model or other, and has a wall hanger tucked underneath, so I'm sure a kit-guy will instantly recognize it, whether they choose to share the info with the rest of us remains to be seen (Oh yes!; I'm very cynical this week!).

Here we have the vac-formed mould for Linka walls and European style cobbled pavement, Linka being carried by Merit at one point, and - I believe - still going, now in the States and with a truncated range. They also used vac-forming for the Steeple mould and as part of the rather complicated Tower moulds.

Below to the left is a small piece taken from a larger base-plate, with a small cannon and a pile of cannon-balls, I know Bellona did a few historical pieces so it could be them, they did use this colour of plastic on at least one run, however it might be from a ship kit's base?

Finally - the tray from a Tesco packet of fish (a rather nice mackerel if I recall correctly!), sides cut away and you get a fine set of British pattern Dragons-teeth for an early war 'Sea-lion' scenario, there is a line of these type running straight through the middle of Guildford to this day!. This type of food packaging often has useful repeat pattern mouldings, or equally useful (larger) shapes (individual puddings) for war-games scenery, I've seen a fantastic Sci-Fi tower made - primarily - out of yogurt pots, a plastic wine glass and chocolate-moose bowls! Word of warning, these are often ABS, polypropylene or PE based plastics, so gluing is much easier with a hot-glue gun.

Guildford, Surrey, these are to be found behind the Travelers Lodge down at Ladymead, on the footpath to the River Wey. In the valley itself, where the main German Trust was expected, they follow the continental fashion of having shorter ones at the front (facing the East-coast as you look along the downs) so that any vehicle failing to see them all covered in brambles would ride-up them and get 'beached', while on this steep slope - unsuitable for vehicles, they are all of the same height, as they are to force infantry to weave their way through them under 'effective fire' from brick pill-boxes and entrenchments (now overgrown) set further back.

There are more remains of this line near the 'secret bunker' you can get guided tours round!..every English Heritage weekend! (or Guildford Arts Festival week? Either way - It's about now each year), beyond the London Road railway station, but on the other side of the road.